


Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior

by TheShadowPanther



Series: The Kakkhan Series [1]
Category: Dragon Ball Z
Genre: Adventure, Family, Sci-Fi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-12-19
Updated: 2004-12-18
Packaged: 2017-10-09 20:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 24
Words: 71,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/91392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShadowPanther/pseuds/TheShadowPanther
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yet another Gohan kidnapped and raised off world story. Gohan is kidnapped at age two and raised as Kakkhan on the planet Giendon. He meets his family later on in story. [First fic in the Kakkhan trilogy]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Taking

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.
> 
> Notes: Frieza, Cell, Majin Buu will be mentioned in this trilogy. Garlic Junior is skipped. Androids Eighteen and Seventeen appear, but the rest of the Androids do not. Also, Piccolo is not the evil side of Kami, so when Piccolo dies, Kami won't die. There is no Saiyaman in this story. The way you pronounce "Laniin" is "Lah-neehn". Replace the double i's with two e's, like a Japanese pronounciation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/n: Chapter edited for glaring format errors and annoying author's notes. Urgh. (Shudders)

The gold-skinned Humanoid stole through the darkness of the country. He kept to the shadows, avoiding the patches of moonlight scattered across the ground. He looked around, his night vision telling him nothing that concerned him for the moment. After a while, he crept out of his chosen sanctuary and skulked across the abandoned setting, toward his destination, a tiny house in the middle of nowhere.

Gohan tossed restlessly to and fro on his newly acquired full bed. His parents had just gotten it yesterday, and he was still not comfortable with it. Two-year old Gohan opened his eyes and his mouth to call for his mother, but it was covered with a gold-skinned hand, alien and yet disturbingly Human. A square/oval face followed, with red pupiled and gold irised eyes, no nose, and a thin cleft for a mouth in the nose's place. It was handsome, in an alienic way. The little chibi Gohan's eyes opened wide with fright but didn't, couldn't make a sound. He could, and did, struggle to yank the hand off his mouth, but since he hadn't had his fight training yet, he failed.

The thin cleft opened to reveal tiny teeth arranged in rows. Where on a normal Human canines would have been, fangs grew, unnatural looking against the size of the teeth around them. The teeth drew out of sight, and the alien spoke in pleasantly accented Japanese, "Do not worry Boy. I do not wish to harm you, so do not try to defend yourself against me."

Gohan stopped struggling, and the alien took his hand slowly away from the chibi's mouth. Satisfied the Human boy wouldn't scream, the gold-skinned alien settled down on his backward-kneed legs beside the low-leveled bed.

Looking at the still scared boy, calmer than before but still wary, the alien sighed. "Well, Boy, if to do anything to stop your distrust of me, I might as well introduce myself. My name is Janden, and I have come for you. I have been sent to collect the boy Saiyan Son Gohan and take him back to my planet for training. I can take you there voluntarily, or I can take you by force. I sincerely hope I do not have to do the latter, but if I have to, I will." Janden looked down at the boy. His eyes had indeed lost its wariness in place of trust, but there was also a kind of anxiety. Janden understood the anxiety, as he didn't want to leave his parents, and also understood the remedy for this.

Reaching out, Janden plunked two out of the thirteen fingers on his hand on the boy's forehead. Reassuring the boy that this would not harm him, a greenish light flowed from his fingers to the demi-Saiyan. Gohan relaxed, his anxiety not to leave his parents forgotten. He clasped Janden's hand and stuck a thumb from his other hand into his mouth. Janden smiled at him, the eyes crinkling slightly at the corner, just a corner of his mouth tilting up. Janden straightened his oddly structured knees and led the trusting chibi out of the house. The boy had been braver than he ever would have been at that age, and would need more bravery to see him through the long Warphole journey to Giendon, Janden's planet.

:-:-:-:

Goku woke up at dawn, as usual, with a yawn. He blinked sleepily as he sat up in bed, and stretched mightily. Chichi was already up, pattering around the kitchen as she prepared breakfast for her men folk. It was some time before Goku noticed that his son's ki was not in his room or anywhere nears the Son home. He frowned. _What is going on?_ he wondered. He heaved himself off the bed and went into his two-year-old son's room. Gohan wasn't sleeping in the bed, and it hadn't been made, which Goku found odd, because usually when Gohan woke up, he always made his bed before he went down to breakfast. Goku frowned again. He closed his eyes, searching for his son's ki, but he couldn't find it. _Hmm. I wonder why I can't sense Gohan's ki? Hey, why am I worrying? He'll probably show up for breakfast, and then my worries would have been for nothing! But still..._

But his thoughts were forgotten as the tantalizing aroma of Chichi's food wafted in the air. "Oh wow, breakfast is ready! It smells really good! I better get down there before I starve of hunger! Mmm..." Goku followed his nose out the bedroom and down the hallway to the kitchen, thinking with his stomach as usual.

Chichi looked up as he arrived. She noticed that Gohan hadn't arrived yet, and she wondered, 'Why? Has Gohan overslept?' Chichi couldn't sense ki like her husband and eventually her son, so she didn't know that her son's energy signature was missing. She asked her husband, "WHY HASN'T GOHAN ARRIVED YET?"

Goku winced.

"I don't know, Chichi. His energy signal isn't anywhere, and he isn't in his bed." Goku realized the mistake he made as his wife screamed, "WHAT! WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE ISN'T IN HIS BED!"

"Well, Chichi, that's exactly what I mean! I mean, if he's gone out, he hasn't returned, but I can't sense his energy signal on Earth anywhere, so I doubt that Gohan's even on the planet!" Goku grasped just what he was saying just after he said it, and a foreboding feeling cascaded over him. His wife's eyes grew wide, and instead of blowing up like she normally did, she became a little subdued. She sat in Gohan's chair, removing the toddler chair out from under her as she sat.

"What? Gohan is gone? What if he's ?" she asked her husband. Goku paused in stuffing himself, which he did in all circumstances if he wasn't fighting, and looked at Chichi. "Kidnapped. That's a horrible idea! He's only been gone for less than an hour! What if he comes back before the end of the day?"

"I know he's been gone for less than a day, but I somehow have the feeling that we're not going to see him for a long time." Goku looked down at his food, his appetite (amazingly) diminished. "Yeah, I have the same feeling too."

The married couple sat in silence, until Chichi got up and said, "Well, even if we aren't going to see Gohan for a long time, we still have to do things like washing the dishes! If you are finished, then come help me!" Goku's eyes widened, and he returned to eating the food at the rapid pace of a full-blooded Saiyan.

:-:-:-:

Janden strode forward, awkwardly moving his legs to match the pace of the young chibi tottering at his side. Gohan had nearly fallen asleep on the long Warphole journey to Giendon, 1.9034 X 10 to the 21st power kilometers away. They were in a spaceship, with aliens everywhere. Janden explained that while Giendon had its own population of the aliens Laniins, they brought children from other races from other planets here to train and to change the future of the home planet that the childs were brought from. Janden explained proudly that he himself was a Laniin, and that Gohan had been his first bringing to Giendon, if not his first teaching. Apparently it was a great honor to bring an "other race" to Giendon.

Also what the Laniins did to the kids they brought to their planet was, one, they stuffed the memories of the children to the back of their brains. Those memories were only to resurface in dire need, or when the "memory cleanee" was dying. Two, the Laniins made the children pick new names for themselves. Even though they renamed the kids, the kids knew their real name, but preferred to go by their chosen name. Three, they educated the children about their home planet, and when the trainee reached sufficient training, he/she/it was sent back to their planet of origin to battle any enemies that threatened the existence of that planet. Janden didn't tell Gohan about the first two things, but he went to extensive details on the last one. Gohan became kind of frightened about the training, but he kept it well hidden.

At last the Laniin stopped at a door. Gohan was happy to stop. Janden tilted his head at the chibi, and stomped one of his large three taloned feet on the platform they had stepped on. The platform, with a rumble, started to move downward, kind of like an open elevator. Gohan clung to Janden's many fingered hand in fear. He buried his face in the armor suit that Janden, and all Laniins, wore with variations in the color to separate each Laniin from one another. Janden's colors were silver and a light violet, which somehow went well with his skin. After a while, when the platform did nothing but go down with a mind of its own, Gohan peeked around Janden. He gaped at all the Laniins go to work here and there, ignoring the odd pair of Laniin and Human on their way to Kami knew where. The chibi was so busy looking around that he didn't notice when the platform stopped rumbling in preparation to stop at the designated place. So it was a surprise to him when the platform suddenly bumped onto the floor. Looking up, Gohan saw it was a long way up to the top, and looked questioningly at Janden.

Janden didn't catch the look, for he was climbing off the platform. He beckoned for Gohan to do the same. "Come Boy, we have a schedule to keep. I must take you to meet the Board of the Headmasters within an Giendon hour of my bringing you in, and Giendon hours are indeed very short, half an Earth hour." The chibi demi-Saiyan hurried to keep with Janden, his stubby legs working to keep up. Janden noticed Gohan's plight and swept him up in his arms. Gohan smiled at Janden and faced forward where he could see interesting things. Janden whipped up his pace to what can be called a run, but was more like a hop-skipping pace. They whistled through the five-walled hallway to a door at the dead end of the hallway.

The Laniin slowed his pace as he approached, sliding to a stop in front of it. He stomped again, putting Gohan on the ground, and the door slid open from the left to the right side. They stepped inside. Janden bowed jerkily, motioning for Gohan to do the same. Gohan copied his Laniin companion perfectly, right down to the amount of air between his head and the ground. Janden raised his eyebrows a fraction, impressed. Whispers in a strange language came from the shadows ahead of them, obviously commenting on the politeness and the quick learning of this Human Boy standing before them.

Then, the shadows lightened to show a board of seven different races. Laniin, Gorthan, Qwithi, Raelin, Wyrnth, Iogoroth, and Human the races were. After a while, the shadows returned to the five races besides Laniin and Human.

_Representatives, I suppose,_ Gohan thought, before the Laniin in the middle caught his attention. This one was gold-skinned, like Janden and like the Laniins Gohan had seen on his way down, but this one was blue- pupiled with the standard gold irises. A crown was embedded in the area above the tilted ears, and the armor spandex was an immaculate white that was stark and yet gentle at the same time. Its voice, when it spoke, was melodious and somehow female.

She welcomed the Human Boy to Giendon, and asked Gohan in excellent Japanese if he understood why he had been brought to Giendon. Gohan shook his head. The inhumanely beautiful Human at the far-left end of the board frowned, but didn't say anything. He stared at Gohan with his startling green eyes. He had wavy black hair, no sideburns and a goatee. He wore a white spandex over a green gi with swallow-tailed sleeves. His nose was hawk-bent, and his mouth was a firm line in his face. His forehead soared high over his eyes, and chiseled eyebrows marched across the otherwise unblemished forehead. All in all, he looked quite magnificent.

The female Laniin turned to the Human, "Yuin, do you have anything to say? From your thoughts, it sounds like you wish to comment on the boy's ignorance." Yuin, still frowning, shook his head no.

"The perhaps you would want to guide the young one to understanding why he has been brought here?" Again Yuin shook his head no, but he did venture a comment on the last subject.

"I cannot guide him, for the young one must come to the conclusion on his own. I cannot make him understand at his age now, even with his complimentary education wrought unto him by his mother so far. He has just been taken from his parents, and if he isn't feeling anything now, he will later, if he is left alone before the cleaning. You know that as well as any Laniin, if not more, Nirvana."

Nirvana nodded her crowned head. "Yes, I did know. But I had forgotten about that, for we have not had a Human visitor for a while." She turned to Janden. "Yuin will not guide the boy, I have forgotten the ways of Human nature, and my colleagues know nothing about Humans. You will have to be this boy's teacher until the time he finishes his training in martial arts, his education about his home planet and his heritage, where the Saiyans came from, and passes the basic Laniin education. Do you accept this responsibility? The martial arts training include the Human Martial Arts and the Saiyan Ki Arts. Should you want help in the martial arts training and education, you may indeed talk to any of us about that, and my colleagues and I shall do our best."

Janden repeated his jerky bow from before and mumbled a phrase that Gohan heard, but didn't understand. Nirvana, however, seemed satisfied, for the knit in between her eyes slowly ironed itself out. With a wave of her hand, the large door behind them opened, and they were seen out by the steady golden gaze of Nirvana and the frowning green gaze of the Human Yuin.

Janden stomped at another door down the hall from the Board of the Headmasters room. The door opened just as quickly and as silently as the previous one. Janden led chibi Gohan through the door, into another hallway with a dead end. The odd pair of Janden and Gohan stood stock-still, and suddenly, they were at the end of the hallway, and going around a corner. Around the corner came, and Gohan stared at the vast chamber they walked into. It was like a scientist's lab, but it was one that would have sent Bulma's lab to shame. Beautifully crafted walls rose up around the machinery, with runes and unknown letters from unknown languages frolicking around the walls in a merry kind of jig, strange to outsiders, but holding a special meaning to those to could interpret its meanings. There were even some characters from the Human Japanese language amongst them.

The machinery itself was frightening in its grandness. There were gadgets for shrinking a person, for reenlarging that same person, and for keeping an eye on the target while it was in shrunken mode. Other gadgets were for searching the stars, traveling the stars, or for blowing up/restoring stars and galaxies. And there were gadgets whose functions could not for the life of Earth be guessed at. What was really remarkable about all these pieces, they showed just how violent these Laniins could be, but also showed just how peaceful this advanced technologically race really was.

Janden towed Gohan over to one of the unknown function machines. The machine had a seat under a huge telescopic cylinder. Another alien had just vacated the seat, and which had a strange look on his/her? face as he/she followed another Laniin away. Gohan watched the alien stagger away from the machine, and looked fearfully at Janden. Janden looked at him, and sighed deeply.

"Do not worry, Boy, it is not harmful. What it does is make you kind of...I don't know, blank-minded for a while. You, and others who go under it, will remain this way until you go to sleep. While you are sleeping, your brain will adjust, and any information you acquire after the cleaning and before the First Sleep will be stored in the place where the previous memories used to be. I will have to be careful during this period."

Janden looked quickly at the boy, to find that Gohan had a look of understanding on his face. He supposed he had that Earthling mother of his new student's to thank for that.

Gohan asked, "By blank-minded, you mean that you'll be erasing my memories?" Janden's mouth tilted up ruefully. "Well, kind of. What is actually being done is that your previous memories before you and I met, they will be put in the back of your head, in one of the places where a Human/Saiyan has no control over. They will only resurface when they are needed, or when they wish to be remembered. One thing that will not be "stuffed" into the back of your head is your real name. However, you will chose a new name for yourself to be known by for the rest of your lifetime, except in the most dire of situations."

"By the most dire of situations, how do you mean?" Gohan asked his future sensei. But Janden looked away to the **cleaning** machine.

"Come, Boy, it is time for your **cleaning**. It will not take long."

Gohan followed his sensei to the seat. Chibi Go-chan slid into the seat. Looking behind himself, he stared in awe as the seat shifted itself to fit him. Finally, the seat became the most comfortable thing for a Human of Gohan's size and age. The machine above him whirred as it adapted its settings to Gohan's brain. Janden commanded the two-year-old Gohan to look straight into the lens that towered above just above it. The machine whirred softly again as the lens came closer and closer to the forehead. At last it touched the as-yet-unmarked forehead, and stuck there. Gohan's eyes glazed over as his memories were messed with, and Janden asked his student,

"What do you see?"

A surprisingly deep baritone voice rolled out of the chibi's mouth. It was the voice of this young warrior when he matured, and it said, "I feel like I am floating in cold darkness and in colder light. The cold light is going away, and the warmer darkness is staying. Darkness asks if it can embrace me, but there is another light coming. A deeper, warmer light. It is coming through the dark, and it is beckoning for me to follow it. But the darkness is insisting I stay, and I do not wish to resist."

The chibi continued to talk, describing the struggle between the light and the dark. Janden knew what it was. It was the struggle between the Saiyan side and the Human side in the boy's blood. The darkness was the Saiyan side, and the warm light was the Human side. It sounded as if though the chibi would go with the Saiyan darkness. Janden hoped he would. A Saiyan was better equipped in battle, and would not have as much difficulty as a Human in reaching and controlling his Ki. Although a Human wouldn't be as difficult to live with as a Saiyan, they would be very limited in learning, with the exceptions of that nine-year-old in college and that Human author who graduated from college at age twenty, the "genius" category. Janden didn't have any doubts that Gohan was in "the genius category" but he just felt better with a Saiyan.

Listening back in on Gohan's conversation, it seemed like Gohan felt better with his Human side, but was going with the Saiyan.

"The darkness, although it is cold, it feels to me instinctively much better than the warm light. The light, as if sensing my doubt, is shrinking. Now it is nothing more than a mere nanoparticle, and the darkness asks if it can envelop me. I open my mouth, but no sound comes out. That does not stop the darkness. It sweeps over me, and I suddenly feel invincible, ready to take on anything that threatens my existence."

Janden grimaced, thinking, _Just like a Saiyan._ Looking on at the chibi, Janden was startled for some reason at the change that was starting to take place. The chibi now looked maturer, more like a fighter as the cleaning went on and the nature and the blood of the former demi-Saiyan warrior changed from half Human/half Saiyan to a full-blooded Saiyan. Without warning, the machine stopped whirring and moved away from the fully transformed Saiyan chibi. The **cleaning** was complete.

The chibi opened his eyes, which at some point had closed entirely against their will, and looked glassily at Janden. Janden, even after watching all of his students go through this, was still a little bothered by how glassy their eyes looked after a **cleaning**. But he was even more shocked by the strong expression of a Saiyan in those eyes behind the glossiness. They were entirely black, with no shine in some distant corner like Goku's eyes do, and they held a far away yearning not for the chibi's parents, but for...a fight, or to learn. Janden recovered, suppressing his surprise, as he asked his student what he should be known by.

The chibi's voice was back to normal, only with a slightly deeper note of maturity added to it. "My real name is Gohan, but I shall be known as...Kakkhan." Kakkhan looked in the direction of his sensei for his approval, and heard it in Janden's voice as he answered. "Very well, Kakkhan, welcome back to Giendon." Kakkhan smiled slightly as he had seen Janden do when they first met, when he was still Gohan. He knew he had made Janden smile just as slightly when he spoke again, it was in his voice. "Come, Kakkhan, let's show you around. You must learn to navigate the corridors of the spaceship _Tiara_ before you go to sleep, or else you will be lost in the morning. Hang on to me, and I will guide you safely. Now, about the planet Giendon, its gravity is five hundred times that of Earth, which is why I Warpholed straight to the ship and not on the planet. The ship has no gravity."

"Warphole is what you did when you transferred me from Earth to here, right? Could you teach me how to do that?"

Thus began one Saiyan child's journey onto a path that had not been documented for him by Fate. But what Kakkhan didn't realize was that he and Janden were starting this journey by conversing in fluent Laniin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Edited 06.29.07_


	2. Beginnings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _   
> **Translated Laniin**   
> _
> 
> 'Telepathy'

**Two Days After Gohan's Kidnapping, Planet Earth**

Goku flew over miles of sea, dreading the telling of the news that he would have to tell Krillin, Bulma, Yamcha, the Turtle, and Master Roshi about his missing son. Even though they hadn't met Gohan yet, they still had a right to know what was going on. If they noticed in the future if he was a little distraught, they would know what was the matter. Chichi had come up with the idea. Goku had disagreed at first, but had given in when his wife threatened to knock him over the head withher frying pan.

Goku was so lost in his thoughts that he missed the island. Mentally kicking himself, he backtracked and landed on the island. Bulma stopped her inventing, and Krillin and Yamcha looked up from their training. They started to say hello, but they quickly noticed that something was bothering Goku.

"Hey, Goku, is anything wrong? You seem a little upset," Krillin asked his best friend of a lot of years.

"Yeah, Goku, although I would say that you seem more than a little upset," Yamcha contradicted.

The Turtle raised his beaked head, and agreed with Yamcha and Krillin. Master Roshi, Puar, and Oolong had gone to the market to do some grocery shopping. Or, in Roshi's case, some Peeping Tom acts. It was then and there that Goku broke down. He raised his arm to cover his face, which was now streaming with tears.

Krillin and Yamcha rushed over to Goku as he sat on the ground, sobbing in despair. They kept asking him, "What's wrong, Goku? You never cry. What's so wrong that's gotten you to cry?" Slowly, Goku spilled the news. "Gohan's been kidnapped!"

"Gohan? Who's Gohan?" Krillin said.

Goku didn't hear his best friend, however; he was crying his heart out for the only son he had, who was now gone.

Krillin tried again. "Goku?"

This time, Goku paid attention. Tears continued to pour down his cheeks, but he was visibly trying to pull himself together.

"Goku, who's Gohan?" Krillin asked again.

"Gohan is my son. Chichi and I got married, and we had a son. But Gohan was kidnapped two days ago."

The emotions going over Yamcha's, Krillin's, Bulma's, and the Turtle's faces were shock and a feeling of loss. Shock that Goku and Chichi had a son, and loss that they had never had a chance to meet him.

They grouped around Goku; all of them, with the exception of the Turtle, helping Goku mourn the loss of his son in their own ways. Bulma hugged her innocent friend, pulling his head down to her shoulder.

After a while, Goku sniffed and wiped his eyes. He smiled at his friends.

"Thanks, guys, for understanding. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Yamcha said, sensibly for once, "Can you sense his ki anywhere?"

Goku shook his head. "No. Either Gohan is dead," and here was a gulp from Goku, "or his ki's being blocked somehow." Then Goku's eyes darkened. "Or he could be on another planet entirely."

:-:-:-:

**Four Days Before the Earthling Present, Planet Giendon**

First Day

Kakkhan woke up in his room on the spaceship _Tiara_, feeling at home. It was strange, but Kakkhan already felt more at home than when he had been Gohan, newly arrived on the ship. He also felt more awake, more like himself, than after the **cleaning**. He remembered Janden's words about this, and felt happy he wasn't an exception.

He rubbed his eyes to get the sleep out of them. That done, he jumped out the adjustable holding that was his bed. He landed on the floor with his tail straight out for balance. Without knowing he did it, Kakkhan smiled at his tail and unconsciously wrapped it around his waist.

Feeling the furry limb on the naked skin above his waist, Kakkhan looked down at his boxers. Raising his eyes, he looked for clothing to dress himself in. As if seeking to please him, part of the wall in front of the chibi Saiyan opened. Inside Kakkhan stepped, into a walk-in wardrobe full of gis and clothes for casual and formal wear. All of the clothing was made to fit a two-year-old chibi of Kakkhan's size. The gis lined two of the six walls, and the casual clothes lined two of the other walls. The formal clothes took up a fifth wall to the Saiyan's right. The sixth wall was empty, except for one outfit. Like all the others, it was would have fit the two year old Kakkhan. But it somehow was foreign and mysterious to Kakkhan. It was the one outfit Gohan had been wearing when he had been taken from his bed to Giendon. To Kakkhan, it symbolized the life he would have had, for good and for bad, had the future been different.

Kakkhan shook himself out of his self-pity and said aloud, **_I wonder what I'm going to wear today?_**

Janden had told him that if he needed anything from his room, it would get him it. The room also knew what Kakkhan's schedule for the day was, even if it hadn't been set up. Right now, Kakkhan was going to use the room's second function to his advantage.

One wall with the casual clothing on his right dislocated its rack of clothes from its holding and thrust it at Kakkhan. The rack itself rearranged its selection until a semi-casual outfit came to the front. The outfit consisted of baggy khaki slack, chibi's shoes, and a light blue long sleeve shirt with a high collar that came close to a turtleneck. A sleeveless dark blue shirt to go over the long sleeve shirt came completed the package. All in all, he looked like an Earthling. That was the point, to distinguish himself from the other races as part of another race himself. There was no point in being an earthling, and as Kakkhan was going to find out, the Laniins raised the off-world children proud to be form their world.

Kakkhan's face lit up and he thanked the wall while he stripped the clothes off the rack. In his head the wardrobe said in a fussy female voice, 'You're welcome, Kakkhan.' It retracted the rack as Kakkhan went out to the main room to get dressed.

One of the Laniins Kakkhan had met yesterday on a tour of the spaceship had told the chibi, **_The bedrooms and the study rooms have been programmed to talk, so if you ever need anyone to talk to, go talk to your room or one of the study rooms._**

The Laniin had been a chibi like Kakkhan, but it was plain that she knew everything about the ship. Kakkhan hadn't really liked her, but had resolved to ask her any questions he had about the _Tiara_.

Kakkhan dressed quickly, stuffing his tail in the opening for it with great care. He had learned already that if anything latched onto his tail, it made him nauseous and prone to pass out. The room, while he was doing this, asked him about his tail.

'Why do you have a tail? No Human I ever saw ever had a tail.'

Kakkhan patiently explained, **_That's because Humans don't have tails. Saiyans do. I'm not sure what a Saiyan is, but I know that that's what I am._**

The room remarked, 'Well, to me, you look a bit Human through the Saiyan face there.'

Kakkhan just pulled on his over shirt.

**   
_Well, that's probably because as Janden told me, my mother was a Human and my father was a Saiyan. Normally, that would make me half Human half Saiyan, but since the cleaning erased my Human side, I'm a full Saiyan._   
**

His voice was muffled by the over shirt over his head. He couldn't quite find the head hole, but luckily a pair of wall-hands helped.

**_Thanks,_** Kakkhan said to the wall that the hands originated from.

'You're welcome,' the Room said.

Kakkhan looked around before he headed to the door. He paused before it opened.

**   
_Hey, Room, what do you want to be called?_   
**

His bedroom's voice seemed to flicker with laughter. 'I was wondering when you were going to ask. It's Tyeler, my name.'

Another hand shifted from the wall near Kakkhan. Kakkhan grasped the five fingers between his thumb and index finger, and Tyeler's "hand" did the same to his hand. The door slid open and the "hand" pushed Kakkhan out the door.

'You have a busy schedule before you today, and the next three days. Have a fun time. Now go, Janden will be waiting for you in the Appendix.'

Kakkhan started forward. Although Janden had shown the chibi around the ship, ending the tour at his room, Kakkhan wasn't all that sure his memory would serve him right. Retracing his steps, Kakkhan's confidence grew, as everything seemed familiar to him. He did caution himself before his ego could grow as well, however. Kakkhan did not need to worry. He arrived at the Upper Appendix on the same floor as his quarters five minutes after Janden.

:-:-:-:

**The Present, Planet Earth**

Goku returned to his house and Chichi. He landed in front of the house. He entered it to find Chichi staring wordlessly and tearfully at a photo taken of Gohan right before it was kidnapped. Goku joined her. They thought of all the things that they would never get to do with their son if they didn't find him soon. The photograph might have been black-and-white, but it was adequate.

Goku had enlisted the help of Yamcha and Krillin and Bulma to help him search for his son as soon as they could, and as soon as he showed them what Gohan looked like. The others were going to arrive at any minute so that they could start the search.

Goku whispered to the picture, "Gohan, wherever you are, I hope you're okay."

Unbeknownst to him, a Giendonese day later, his message would reach the dreams of a chibi Saiyan by the name of Kakkhan.

:-:-:-:

**Three Earthling Days Before to the Earthling Present, Planet Giendon**

Second-Fourth Days

Kakkhan ran along the corridors on the seventh floor above the Residence floor. He was dressed in a green gi with a black T-shirt underneath it, with his tail flying out behind him to keep him upward. This day and the next day were going to be martial arts lessons, something Kakkhan was actually looking forward to.

The last day had gone by in a blur. After he had met Janden in the Upper Appendix, Kakkhan had been handed his schedule for the month. It started the next day, which was the 2nd day. Then he had met the "people" who would administer Kakkhan's martial arts studies. He had also met the "people" that would educate him about his home planet Earth and his Saiyan heritage. Janden would tutor Kakkhan in the Laniin academics.

Kakkhan's memory must have been enhanced during the sleep after the **cleaning**, or First Sleep as it was called, because he remembered the faces and the names of his teachers on the first try. After he met his teachers, Kakkhan was whisked off to the "classrooms" where they would teach him. The academic studies were taught in a huge grandstand-like room like those found in Earthling universities and high schools.

The fighting education was another matter entirely. The "room" was not a room at all, but a chamber designed to give the user the illusion of being at home on their original planet, no matter who the sparring partners were. They were also built in gravity domes, with far more capabilities than what Bulma Briefs could ever design. The gravity could soar from 0g to over 400g with ease. Coupled with Giendon's gravity at 500 more g than that of earth's it made for 800g, which was hard to beat. The level of the gravity depended on the ki of the fighter(s) within. The higher the ki, the higher the gravity level, and vice-versa.

There were even specially designed gravity domes with capabilities of over a thousand-g for the elite warriors.

Time flew by, especially since Giendonese time is half that of Earth's. It seemed to Kakkhan that he had just closed his eyes to sleep when Tyeler woke him up. For some strange reason, our favorite character didn't feel sleep-deprived. Perhaps it was the fact that Kakkhan slept like a dead thing. Or maybe the fact that he had gotten used to the shift in Giendonese time from Earth time during the **cleaning**, and was used to the shortened day. However, to a normal Earthling on Giendon, the day would pass by just like an Earth day, when in reality, two Giendonese days were passing to one Earth day.

Kakkhan spent the 2nd to 3rd days in his martial arts teacher Rerun's dome learning how to fight. By the end of the 3rd day, he had learned to properly punch and kick and some rather dirty moves. In the eating periods, Kakkhan ate so much at once that even Rerun gaped in open-jawed amazement. And nothing amazed Rerun.

The 4th day, Kakkhan went to his academics class with something akin to dread. He didn't know why, or especially care, he just didn't want to study. Perhaps it was a lingeringmemory from when he was Gohan. But when he arrived, there was a surprise. Janden smiled at his student's shocked face as kakkhan looked around the room.

The room was littered with strange scrolls and even stranger symbols in them. This was the start of Kakkhan's learning. The scrolls were Kakkhan's guides to learning how to read and write in Laniin. Janden had decided to start with the language this time, seeing as how Kakkhan liked to question him on the Laniins, and how they read and wrote. When Kakkhan's face lit up with surprise and pleasure, Janden knew he was going to have a good time with this kid.

And that's how Kakkhan's first four days went. But Kakkhan's fourth day was not done, even when he had gone to sleep. For a voice whispered in his dreams, "Gohan, wherever you are, I hope you're okay."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited 06.29.07 for glaring formatting and flow errors, the ugly rulers, and those ubiquitously annoying author's notes. (Shudders) Bleagh.


	3. Brotherly Reunions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon character death.

It was two years after the kidnapping of Gohan. Goku and the others had slowly moved on, now speaking of Gohan was if he were dead, although Goku and Chichi still held hope. As the old saying goes, "No news is good news". Life moved around them in an endless circle with Death dancing along. To their immense dismay, Gohan was starting to slip from Chichi's and Goku's minds, fueled even more by the short time they had had with him before he died. Sure, they looked at the photos they had of him, but that didn't remind them of how Gohan sounded, or how he greeted his father and mother. The pictures were the only things that his parents would be sure to keep in memory to him for as long as they lived.

Goku and Chichi were visiting Bulma and the rest of the Z-gang on Kame Island. Laughter had returned to this two, and smiles pranced over their faces as their voices rippled in the air talking about the things they most loved. But lurking in the back of their eyes was pain pushed back as the memories of Gohan slipped away, not to be recovered until much later. Oolong, Puar, and Master Roshi had been told of the news of Gohan, but they did not bring the subject up, for they too had begun to forget the horrible tragedy as Time went on and healed wounds old and new.

Suddenly, Goku's head shot up. A powerful ki was coming, and it didn't feel friendly. The ki kept coming, until a figure could be clearly seen against the sky. The strange thing about the figure, it was flying. It wasn't flying like Goku did, on the Nimbus, it flew completely alone, without support of any kind from anything. The Z-gang kept watching the figure, watching it get closer until it had landed on the ground on Kame Island. They gaped at the person standing before them. He had on a black leather spandex typical of the Saiyans early on in the DBZ episodes. His hair grew in shocking black spikes all the way past his shoulders, his waist, to his ankles. The Scouter on the newcomer's eye glinted in the sunlight, and his tail, his tail!, unwrapped from his waist to point at Goku.

Radditz had arrived. And he was not happy!

:-:-:-:

**Sometime Later**

"Then perhaps taking your weak Human wife will convince you to change your mind!" The line raced through Goku's mind as he followed Piccolo on the Nimbus as they flitted through their air towards the mountains in chase of Goku's long lost brother, Radditz the Saiyan. Piccolo had shown up some time after Radditz had departed, claiming a temporary truce in the light of Radditz' appearance on Earth. Goku had been dubious, but willing. After all he had lost one member of his precious family, he couldn't afford to lose two! It was enough that Gohan was gone, but the though of losing Chichi was too much to bear.

At last they landed, where Radditz was standing next to a huge crater. A weird space pod was in the middle of the crater, and Radditz was preparing to push Chichi into the pod. At the signal of his Scouter, he looked around and spotted his little brother. He grinned sanguinely and shoved Chichi to the side. Chichi dropped to the ground with a faint harpy shriek, causing Goku's boiling blood to rise again.

"So, Kakkarot, are you ready to join me and regain your Saiyan heritage back?" Radditz' crude voice cut through the air, jarring the eardrums of any who heard it.

Goku shot back, "Never! And my name's not Kakkarot, it's Goku!"

"No, Kakkarot is your real name! You won't join me, eh? Well then, your loss is my gain. Perhaps we could do something with your wife…" Glancing at Chichi, "No, she's a hopeless case. Oh well, she'll go to her doom as soon as I take care of the stupid baka that is my brother!"

Turning back to Goku, Radditz smirked as Piccolo stepped forward to stand by Goku.

"Formed a team, eh? Well then, bring it on!" Radditz dashed by them and elbowed them both in the back. The duo of Piccolo and Goku fell to the ground.

"How pathetic. Can't even take an elbow in the back. I might as well give up on you, Kakkarot."

Goku snarled and got up from the ground. Radditz smirked and got on the ready again. The whole scene then goes on like in DBZ, only with Chichi bashing Radditz on the head with her frying pan in place of Gohan rising to meet his uncle's threat to his father. Raditz never new what hit him, as Goku grabbed him by the arms and stood behind him.

"Piccolo! Do it!"

Piccolo nodded and fired up his Spirit Beam Cannon as Radditz' eyes widened and he strained to get away. He broke his younger brother's wrists doing this, but couldn't get out of the way. Piccolo shot the Cannon toward Radditz and Goku, having to fend off Chichi as the Cannon stabbed through the armor spandex Raditz wore from front to behind and out of the body to the younger Saiyan behind him, passing through him to crash in the mountains far away.

Radditz and Goku fell to the ground. Looking up at Piccolo, Radditz told him that his Saiyan Prince would be coming ina year, and that they were coming for the Dragonballs. At last he grinned savagely and relaxed, passing on to the Other World and ultimately HFIL.

Chichi, meanwhile, was sobbing over Goku.

"Why, Goku, why? Why did you do that? Tell me, why?"

Her husband struggled to get up from the ground, wincing. He slid back to the ground with a groan, and simply said, "Gohan."

With that last word, Goku, the world's savior and protector passed away into the Other World for the first, but not the last, time.

:-:-:-:

**Same Time, Planet Giendon**

Kakkhan watched in fascination as the Saiyans fell to the ground. He, his friend Balannon, and Janden were watching the Saiyans fight. Kakkhan wondered who the fighter in orange was, and the woman that kneeled over him. Something stirred in his heart at the sight of them, but what the meaning of that was, he didn't know. Kakkhan was still a chibi at six Giendonese years old, which translates into four years old in Earth time. The green man, a Namekian as Janden called his race, was unfamiliar up to a point.

They watched as the Namekian held the thrashing Human woman in his arms. He took off into the air, and Kakkhan groaned in disappointment as the bodies of the two Saiyans disappeared, no doubt on the Snake Way to the Other World.

Balannon grinned at Kakkhan. **_Ever the bloody-minded savage, aren't you, Kakkhan?_** Kakkhan's friend was short and plump, with stringy ginger blond hair raked over his oddly shaped head. Balannon was a Gorthan, and his blue skin, face, and body stature were all typical of Gorthans. The only thing unusual about Balannon that differed from other Gorthans, he had three fingers on each of his four hands instead of four fingers. Amongst Balannon's clan, three fingers were a sign of great betrayal, and they had sent him to Giendon to get him off their planet. There he had met Kakkhan, and they had been best friends for four years.

In four years, Kakkhan's martial arts skills had improved greatly. Now he was studying the Saiyan Ki Arts, or the things that Saiyans (and other races, in the case of the first three) do with their ki: flying, making ki balls, telepathy and empathy, and going Super Saiyan. When he had begun, Aslib, his ki teacher, had given him an armband, much like the ones on the left arm of many warriors taught at Giendon. The armband was actually a ki damper, in the disguise of decoration. Now no one could sense hi ki, even if he was right next to the person. Kakkhan had a feeling he would need that in the future. Whenever the Saiyan thought about the future, he always had a feeling like someone walking over his grave, whatever that means.

In academics, Kakkhan was also thriving. He had learned to read and write not only in Laniin, but also in Earthling Japanese and English too. He could figure out problems in his head that the most learned Earthling scholar write out on paper. Kakkhan also knew many things about Earth. But he had lots more to learn, and he was going to have fun too. In his leisure time, when Kakkhan was not fighting or reading, he would take up a brush and a piece of rice paper, and write stories in Japanese characters. The stories were usually written in the traditional way of the Laniins, but sometimes he explored other races' points of view, and wrote Human, Gorthan, Qwithi, Raelin, Wyrnth, and Iogoroth stories.

But for now, Kakkhan just laughed at his friend's statement. He shook his black spiky hair out of his eyes and answered his friend, jokingly, **_It's not like you are exactly a warrior either._** Balannon just grinned.

Janden joined in on the conversation. **_Come, Boy, come Gorthano, let us resume your training. After all, you must be ready for the final exams in Desert Moon (1) for this year._**

The two young ones groaned good-naturedly and followed Janden to the second and third training domes, where Aslib and Iyo, Balannon's teacher, were waiting for them.

Kakkhan eagerly stepped in the second G-dome. Aslib himself levitated in meditation two feet in the air. Kakkhan joined him, on the ground. They did this meditation every day in the morning when Kakkhan came into the G-dome for his martial arts training. I guess we Humans would call it his PE class. After one minute of extensive meditation, Aslib unfolded his long legs and tried to punch Kakkhan lightly. Kakkhan slid back as he felt his master's presence coming toward him in a light fist. Aslib grinned slightly.

**   
_You are getting better, Boy. Now, let's see your control of your ki._   
**

Kakkhan nodded resignedly and opened his eyes. He watched calmly as Aslib went into a defensive stance. When Aslib nodded to him, Kakkhan stood up and brought up his hand. A fiery ki ball formed on his palm that fought to erupt from Kakkhan's mental hold and go wild. Kakkhan, however, merely smiled. At last the ki ball settled down into an ordinary ki ball. Kakkhan threw the ball at his teacher. Aslib decided to try and dodge it this time, see if Kakkhan had as much control over the ball as he thought he did. Dodging to the side, Aslib threw up his arms as the ki followed him.

A big _BOOM!_ followed as Aslib's arms met the force of Kakkhan's ki ball. As usual after a big ki explosion, smoke obscured the arena. When it cleared, Kakkhan was frowning. Aslib, standing beside him, asked,

**   
_Why are you frowning, my Boy?_   
**

Kakkhan looked up briefly before answering, **_I'm frowning because I could have had better control on the ki when it followed you. It kind of escaped me at the end._**

Aslib's face took on a pleased expression. **_I'm glad you spotted that. If you had not, I would have drilled you in the head with that until you finally got it. Luckily for you and me, I don't have to._**

Kakkhan laughed. Then his teacher sprang from him to a spot opposite his student, and said, **_Let's do that again. And this time, don't relax at the end!_**

**   
_Yes, Master._   
**

Kakkhan formed the ki ball again. This time it came out perfectly round, with no flames radiating out of the sphere in a miniature imitation of a star. The child Saiyan launched the ball at his teacher. Not waiting, Aslib ducked. Like before, the ki ball altered its course to follow the teacher's movements. This time, though, it wreaked a lot more damage on Aslib than the first ki ball of the day. Aslib staggered a step back from the blow, bruises all over his face. Peering between his arms to his student, he couldn't see Kakkhan. Then a glimpse of green gi flashed to his right, to his left, and back again. Aslib prepared for an attack from behind, from above, from the front, and from the left, thinking his student would try to attack him from those places.

He never knew what hit him from the right. Kakkhan had seen he had fooled his teacher into thinking he would attack from any place but the right, and he had changed his mind about attacking from the front. Aslib turned on his student's concentrated face and punched him in the nose. Or tried to. Kakkhan dodged the blow and came up under Aslib's arm to punch his teacher in the stomach. But Aslib deflected that and brought his knee up, catching his student in the chin. Kakkhan recovered from that and brought his hands up. Aslib grinned ferociously, he liked this. All of a sudden, Kakkhan disappeared. Aslib didn't lose his cool, but closed his eyes and searched for his student's **presence **(2). He had a little difficulty, for Kakkhan had been practicing lowering his **presence** on his own.

Kakkhan, as silent as ever, reappeared behind his sparring partner. He fired the ki beam, powering up his ki as he did so. It was only when the beam was directly behind Aslib that he turned around. His eyes widened and he hurriedly dropped into a defensive stance, throwing his arms over his face. He was too slow. The beam roared past his arms and blasted half of Aslib's face off. Thudding to the ground, Aslib felt a little dizzy. Although he was the supreme expert on Saiyan might, he had never before fought one up close and personal. One could understand Aslib's feeling of being overwhelmed.

Suddenly, Aslib indistinctly made out someone standing over him. Grinning exhilaratedly, he told Kakkhan, **_I think it's time I taught you how to fly._**

:-:-:-:

**Snake Way, the Otherworld**

"Hey, how long is the Snake Way to King Kai's world?" Goku asked the driver, who was blue, of a truck puttering around on Snake Way.

"Ten thousand kilometers," he replied.

"TEN THOUSAND KILOMETERS? Are you kidding me?" Goku stood and scratched his head. _'How am I going to run ten thousand kilometers in one day? Hey, I know!'_ Turning back to the truck guy, Goku discovered that the truck was already on its way.

"HEY! YOU! COME BACK HERE!" Goku started running to catch up with the truck. When he did, he asked, "Hey, can I catch a ride for a little while? Just to narrow the distance between me and King Kai's planet?"

The little blue dude in the driver's seat shrugged and said, "Sure. You'll have to sit in the back, though. I don't have any room for you in the front seat next to me."

"Thanks!" Goku hopped in the back and settled himself. He shoulda done it securely, as we all know, but he didn't, so that's that. He thought about what Gohan would have done if he had been in the same circumstances as his father, and chuckled at the image. Then the truck moved, and Goku lay on his back, ready to remember his son for what he had been, and not what he would have been.

After a while, the driver was managing a particularly difficult curve in the winding Snake Way. He took it sharply. Unfortunately, Goku wasn't secure in the back of the truck enough, and he went flying off. The truck dude never stopped and looked back to see if Goku was on or not. He just kept driving.

With a "Whoops," Goku fell off the Snake Way and into the yellow clouds around it.

Since it would be way too much space for me to write what's next, let's just say that everything happens just like Dragonball Z, only without Gohan. Chichi and Bulma keep each other company, and Piccolo keeps to himself, like always. Chichi was really in a bad state now, having just recovered (not quite) from losing Gohan. Now she's lost Goku. She could be seen often with a sad look on her face. Living with Bulma seemed to do Chichi a load of good after a few years, however. She hardly ever cried anymore at this stage of her life.

On Goku's side, he was busy trying to get to King Kai's planet. He had just emerged from King Yemma's drawer and set himself on the Snake Way again.

Far out in space, two spaceships were coming at an incredible speed from a newly blown up planet. The ball-like pods were destined for Earth, on a mission to find out why it had bot been blown up yet.

On Giendon, Kakkhan and Balannon continued their studies. Kakkhan was learning how to fly and how to do several techniques. Some of them were the Warphole technique, the Instant Transmission technique, and the Masenko Beam. Later, Kakkhan would also learn the Spirit Blade technique. He had learned the difference between ki and one's presence, and learned to sense them both at once. Now his fighting studies revolved around developing his telepathic abilities and aiming for the ascension before Super Saiyan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) Desert Moon—April. April on Giendon is a month of raging winds and desert sand.
> 
> (2) **Presence**—The difference between ki and presence is that in here, ki is the energy signature of the body. Presence is the energy signature of the soul. **Presence** is harder to detect than ki, but much more worthwhile. However, **presence **cannot be detected far away, like ki can. So it would be to the advantage of a fighter to be able to sense both energy signatures individually and at once.


	4. The Arrival of the Saiyans

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

~*~ = Scene change/end chapter

'Telepathy'

Thoughts

"Speech"

Action

~*~

Chapter Four: The Arrival of the Saiyans

~*~

Goku bonked Gregory on the head as hard as he could. The little beetle flew back, holding his head for the second time that day.

"I'm all right. That didn't hurt," said poor Gregory.

King Kai chuckled to himself as a huge bump grew out of the top of Gregory's head.

"Oh really? Then I suppose that bump on your head isn't really there!"

King Kai cracked up as Gregory's face fell. The little beetle felt the tip of his bump and winced as his fingers met tender skin.

Goku had finally gotten to King Kai's planet after being sent back to King Yemma's drawer by the Ogres of HFIL and being delayed by Princess Snake. Now he was laughing with King Kai at Gregory's expression.

King Kai's antennae twitched. Suddenly the North Quadrant Guardian scrunched down in panic. Goku saw King Kai and wondered why.

"King Kai, what's wrong?" he asked.

"If you put your hand on my back, you can see for yourself!"

Goku stood behind the North Quadrant Kai and placed a broad hand on the latter's back, almost pushing him to the ground. A picture filtered into his head. He recognized planet Earth in the picture. The odd balls of metal in craters around them were also familiar to Goku. It was the people standing next to the craters that were totally strange.

They were similar to Raditz in many ways. They wore armor spandexes and had tails. One was shorter than the other, but had an authoritative air around him. He had on a blue gi under a white armor spandex. Black spiky hair arranged in a fire pattern swept away from his head to reveal an expression on the short guy's face as very smug, and maybe a little cranky. (A little?)

The other dude was much taller than his companion was. He was bald with freckles on top of his head. He had a mustache and a very bully-ish expression on his face. He was large and bulky, and easily intimidating. The tail behind him waved in either fiendish delight or anticipation. Which one, Goku didn't know.

King Kai gasped. "I hoped these two wouldn't show up! Goku, you're going to have to defeat these two before they do anything as serious as blowing up the planet!"

Goku was floored. "WHAT! CAN THEY ACTUALLY DO THAT? Blow up the planet, I mean."

King Kai fell on his ear anime-style. _How thickheaded can this one get? I'll have to tell him about the Saiyan race then!_

Abruptly turning away he went into his house. Goku looked after him, surprised. After a while of standing there doing nothing, he dragged his feet at the gravity and followed King Kai.

There, Goku listened to King Kai as he related the story of the Saiyan race. Goku was absolutely shocked to find out that Raditz was right, he was not human. He was a Saiyan, just like Raditz and the two people he had seen on Earth through King Kai.

When King Kai finished his parable, Goku said nothing. Then,

"What do I have to do to beat those two Saiyans on Earth?"

King Kai sighed with relief. He had hoped Goku wouldn't refuse to fight after hearing about the power the Saiyan prince and his bodyguard had. He led Goku outside, where the training began in earnest.

ON PLANET GIENDON

Kakkhan's ki swept up in a fury, his [presence] soaring along with it. Aslib had just dealt him a dirty trick, and Kakkhan was now acting upon it. A wind swept into the G-dome. Kakkhan obtained an aura with white edging. His power rose to its full potential, seemingly overtaking Kakkhan in its journey. Kakkhan ceased his screaming and glared at Aslib. His teacher was grinning, finally having pushed his student overboard to reach the ascension before Super Saiyan (What is that level called anyway?). Kakkhan had been on the verge for so long, Aslib had thought that Kakkhan would never reach it. Well, now, he finally had.

Aslib's grin turned down as Kakkhan charged at him. Teacher rose to meet student, but was left in confusion as the student disappeared. (This fight sound familiar?) Aslib felt something behind him and to the left, and faced a very short but very angry Kakkhan.

To the untrained eye, the fight that followed were just flashes of Kakkhan's green gi and Aslib's yellow one. The trained eye, however, saw Kakkhan try to beat the lights out of Aslib. Aslib was hanging on, though, and the fight gradually became more even. Finally Kakkhan was knocked to the ground by a vicious combo of a kick to the stomach and three punches to the head. Kakkhan groaned, but just lay there, too tired to move. Aslib flew down and landed lightly beside him. The proud chibi Saiyan's ki and [presence] were settling down to normal. Kakkhan smiled weakly at his sensei, and tried to voice an apology for his behavior.

Aslib chuckled and waved him off. "No Boy, it is I who must apologize. I was the one taunting you, and therefore the one what drove you mad. I must say though, you did an excellent job of reaching the level before Super Saiyan. Now it's time to focus on controlling your ki and [presence] in this level, the control of your techniques and styles, and your telepathic and emphatic abilities now that you are at this level. Then we'll move from there." Kakkhan's training master crossed his arms.

Kakkhan looked at his master eagerly. "Then we'll move on to Super Saiyan, right? That will be so cool…"

Aslib chuckled again and uncrossed his arms. "Then we'll move on to Super Saiyan. For now, let's meditate to get a head start on controlling your ki and [presence] in this level."

"After we have a Senzu bean first."

"Yes, after we both have a Senzu bean."

After they had their Senzu beans, they settled into meditation for the next half-hour. Aslib coached Kakkhan through the meditation as Kakkhan powered up again.

The remaining half-hour darted away. Kakkhan Instant Transmitted back to his room to change his gi and get dressed appropriately for his academic training with Janden.

He had a brief verbal spar with Tyeler, as usual, then collected his books. Tyeler told him,

'Kakkhan, you'd better take your Saiyan Heritage books with you. You're going to need them with Janden today.'

"Okay, thanks. Wonder why I'm going to need them? We're not starting Saiyan history for another month or so."

'Oh, I think you'll find your schedule has changed much, my friend. Don't be surprised at what Janden tells you, it is the reason why he has changed your academic timetable. It's also why Aslib pushed you to the level before Super Saiyan. You'll see what I mean when you get there.'

There was an inscrutable note in Tyeler's voice as it said these words. Kakkhan looked at the door oddly, but retrieved those books. Then Kakkhan looked at his time-keeping device and moved quickly.

_I'm gonna be late if I don't move it!_ With that thought Kakkhan IT'd to Janden's studio just in time. There he got an unpleasant surprise. Janden and Xian, Kakkhan's future Saiyan teacher, looked up as Kakkhan appeared. They watched the expression on Kakkhan's face turn from pensive to horror as the Saiyan looked at the moving hologram at the back of the studio. It showed the image of what Goku had seen through King Kai before. Kakkhan threw down his books and opened the first Saiyan volume. He flipped through the pages until he came to the section on the Royal family. With a sigh, Kakkhan dropped down onto his usual chair, staring at the double images of Prince Vegeta and the bodyguard Nappa smirking at him.

Kakkhan had been warned about this kind of situation. If anyone or anything appeared on Earth, and was a danger to the planet, Kakkhan would be sent to defeat or fix the threat and return to Giendon once he was done. Kakkhan had taken the warning seriously, but hadn't thought that it would happen. And now it had.

He sighed. "Well, I guess I'd better start doing my research before I go off to defeat those two, huh?" said Kakkhan, breaking the silence.

Janden and Xian smiled, a little sadly. "It would be a good idea. However, we can do this in style," said Xian.

Some of Kakkhan's gloom evaporated when he heard Xian's words. With a will not an enthusiastic as usual, he flipped to the front of the book and started a research project on the Saiyans that would last for three whole days.

After six days, Kakkhan was ready, both in martial arts and in research. He was going to Earth in a Warphole done by Janden, since he didn't know how far it was from Giendon to Earth. Balannon came to see him off, along with Aslib, Janden, Rerun, Xian, Iyo, and many other Laniins Kakkhan didn't know. The bossy female Laniin was also there, to Kakkhan's surprise. She was the one Kakkhan and Janden had met on Kakkhan's first tour of the _Tiara_, and who had told him about the talking bedrooms. She raised her thirteen-fingered hand in farewell, then stepped into the crowd. Kakkhan looked after her blinking in shock. That was pushed into the back of his head to ponder on a rainy Earthling day when Janden stepped forward and patted his shoulder in goodbye.

The other people paid their good byes, with Balannon straining to control his emotions. (I wonder why I'm making the Laniins so emotional. Is it because they don't believe he'll come back from the Saiyans alive?) Balannon failed miserably and just plain hugged his best friend. Balannon was very emotional and had yet to learn to control his impulses.

Aslib came and cuffed Kakkhan on the back of his head. It was an affectionate gesture, which was rare from Aslib. Easygoing, rarely losing his temper Aslib. He bent down to view Kakkhan in the face and whispered, "Boy, remember what I said about controlling your temper and staying focused in battle."

Kakkhan smiled wryly. "I will, Master Aslib, I will."

Kakkhan's teacher stepped back. Nirvana, the Headmistress Laniin, moved in his place. She reached out and cupped Kakkhan's cheek in her hand.

She said in her smooth euphonious voice, "Whatever you do, do not give away your name to the people you meet on planet Earth. Do not get acquainted. It will be for the better if you do not. Not until later in your life. It would also be wise to not exert your full strength unless you are absolutely sure you need to. Now go in faith, my friend, and heed well my advice."

The child Saiyan nodded. He placed a neutral expression on his face and squared hi shoulder. Swinging around, Kakkhan strode into Janden's Warphole, not to be seen again for many days. He would heed his Headmistress' advice and remain a mysterious warrior to those Saiyans and their friends. Kakkhan vowed he would only help out in case of dire need, not taking on Prince Vegeta and the blood-crazy guard directly unless he needed to.

MUCH LATER, ON EARTH

KAKKHAN

I stepped out of the pentagonal passageway to find an eerily familiar landscape around me. I was glad for the armband nestled on my left arm. I didn't feel safe in this place; it was so foreign and yet so familiar from the training in Master Aslib's G-dome. It also had to do with the fact that I knew the dangerous Saiyan Prince and his Royal bodyguard were approximately fifty feet off to an angle to my right. I also felt a lesser ki of five warriors, undoubtedly the Human warriors here to defeat the Saiyan pair.

I decided to find a spot on the cliff above the Saiyans. I was going to try to keep out their sight and to find any weaknesses besides their tails. My mind made up, I flew to the cliff overlooking the Royal pair and watched.

I watched a three-eyed man step forward to challenge Nappa. I looked on as both the three-eye and a scar-faced man in a red gi died trying to defeat the Saibamen (?). I saw the last of the Saibamen die with the scar-face, and stood by as Nappa shot a ki ball at the tall green man, the Namekian. The Namekian wasn't fast enough, and he died.

Sensing a powerful ki descend from the sky, I looked up. It was a tall man in a red gi identical to the ones the scar-face and a midget were wearing. I silently gasped as I recognized this one to be another Saiyan, the one that had been sent on a purging mission to this very planet. His memory had been wiped out somehow, so now he was the guardian of this planet. I thought, _How ironic_.

The man called out, "Krillin, get away from here while I take care of these two. Go now!"

"Okay, Goku!" The bald midget sped off into the air, a white aura leaving a temporary trail behind him. I observed the man that was Kakkarot shift his attention back to Prince Vegeta. The look on the warrior's face was a look I knew well: I had worn it myself often in the past. It was one of total concentration on one particular thing, a thing that was meant to be defeated.

Prince Vegeta smirked. "Nappa, go fight him. I'm sure this third-class Kakkarot baka will be easy to defeat."

Nappa knocked a hard fist into a flinty hand. The Saiyan Kakkarot landed on the ground and moved into a fighting stance. The stance was one I could find few faults in. Mentally I whistled, impressed. Outwardly, I kept my neutral look. I had the unreasonable feeling that if I showed any emotion, I would be spotted and ripped into shreds before I could move a muscle.

The two fighters charged at each other. They punched and kicked their way into a whirlwind. I tried to keep track of their movements, with less success than I expected. From what I could see and sense, Kakkarot had the upper hand over Nappa. Sneaking a glance at the Prince, I saw the startings of irritation in that smirk. Vegeta could see that Nappa wasn't going to last much longer. I turned back to the fight.

Then Vegeta stopped the fight.

"Nappa, get over here. I want to talk to you."

Nappa walked over to his Prince. I, being on the cliff overlooking them, could hear every word.

"Nappa, I want you to find and kill the weakling Kakkarot sent away. I will dispose of the son of that third class Bardock."

Nappa protested, "But, Your Highness, I want to fight that baka."

Vegeta glared at his supposed bodyguard. "Nappa, I will explain to you why I want you to find the weakling and take care of him. He is the only one besides Kakkarot who knows we're here, and he might come back with reinforcements. Reinforcements strong enough to seriously injure us, not that he could find any strong enough. But if he dies, then no one will be able to stand in our way and we can blow this mud ball of a planet up and go back to Vegeta-sei! Now do what I commanded you to do a few minutes ago!"

Nappa's face brightened, and he bowed low. "Yes, Your Highness. That is an excellent idea, Your Highness. I will kill the weakling human now."

"Good."

Nappa blasted off into the air. Vegeta turned back to Goku. Sensing Nappa far off into the distance, close to the midget's ki, I IT'd to appear directly in front of Nappa.

Since I had on a ki damper, thank Kami, Nappa didn't see me until he crashed headfirst into my outstretched fist. A noise of surprise and pain erupted from Nappa's throat. The big warrior staggered in the air and fell to the ground with an audible thud.

I flew down to where Nappa lay and blasted him with a ki blast. For some reason, I didn't enjoy the blasting. Of course, I had never used my ki to kill anyone, even if that person deserved it, like Nappa. I looked first at the disintegrated ash that was once Nappa, then at my hands. Back and forth I looked.

KRILLIN

I had hidden behind one of the mountains in an effort to hide from the broad fighter. I had felt the ugly warrior coming close, and I knew he was out to kill me. I could feel that Goku was still alive, so the short guy must have sent Nappa here.

I was mighty glad when Goku showed up. Now I didn't have to fight for Earth alone, if alone I was indeed fighting. Before Goku showed up, and even now, I felt like I was being watched. Watched by someone other than the two people before me then. That feeling was stronger in this area.

Suddenly, I heard a voice. It was the voice of the dumb warrior.

"WHERE ARE YOU, HUMAN? COME OUT, COME OUT, WHEREVER YOU ARE!"

I started to panic. I didn't know what to do. I thought of staying in hiding and trying to keep him from finding me, but that would only stall for time. I thought of flying out and making him chase me, but that would just speed up my death. But what happened next ended my dilemma for me.

In a flash of green and black, a kid appeared right in front of the ugly warrior as he was flying. The kid punched the other fighter in the top of the head hard. With a bellow of surprise and pain, the bald bully lost his balance and fell to the ground, thudding loudly. The kid landed next to the big brute of flesh and fired a ki blast at him.

My jaw hung open in shock. Then I noticed the kid's shoulders sagged, and he kept looking from his hands to the scorched ground where the big Saiyan had once been. I guessed that the kid had not killed anyone before, and didn't like it. I emerged from my hiding place and said,

"It's all right, kid. But tell me, why did you kill him while he was defenseless?"

The kid jumped. He looked at me wildly. Apparently he didn't think me dangerous, for he relaxed immediately. I could see he was still wary, so I approached him with care.

"It's all right. I'm not going to hurt you, unless you're on his side." I jerked a thumb at the big warrior's extermination ground.

The kid snorted derisively. "Him? Nappa may the Prince's bodyguard, but he is a disgrace to the Saiyan race. Ugh!" This last was directed in the area where I had left Goku, and I assumed, the person who the kid referred to as "the Prince". I could feel what had cut the kid mid-sentence, as Goku's voice echoed,

"SPIRIT BOMB!"

A huge amount of ki started flowing off everything we could see: the flowers, the grass, the mountains, even our clothes. My companion "ugh" again, and raised his arm. Ki poured from his hand into the air and joined the other ebbing of ki. That outpouring drifted swiftly in Goku's direction, but that was not what surprised. What surprised me was the fact that the kid had known was going on a t all, and had actually helped.

The mysterious fighter sighed. Looking at me, he grinned outright. The grin transformed the kid's features into a five-year-old's face, instead of someone much older. I guess I must have looked funny, particularly since my jaw had dropped to the ground.

The kid said, "You look funny with that look on your face. Now, back to business. Follow me, we must get quickly back to your friend's aid. I have a feeling he'll need it."

With that, he blasted off into the air. I looked after him, my jaw still hanging open. A number of facts about that kid that I didn't expect in any kid about five years of age: his voice was way too mature, he understood what was going on way better than I did, he knew how to fly, to shoot ki, and he knew tactics of fighting. I shook my head at my bemusement, and followed the cryptic kid back to Goku.

KAKKHAN

The midget and I flew back to the main fight, just in time to see a huge ape wearing the armor spandex and gi of the Prince launch a ki beam at Kakkarot. Kakkarot was lying on the ground, unable to get up. I assumed that the Prince was going to try and stop the younger Saiyan from completing the Spirit Bomb. I thrust myself in front of the ki blast. Ignoring the midget's cries to get out of there, I concentrated on the beam. I raised an arm and deflected it away. Then I got out of there as fast as my body could carry me.

I screamed at the fallen Kakkarot, "Fire the Spirit Bomb now!"

Too late I realized that at the angle that Kakkarot was at, his Bomb would never reach Vegeta and properly hit him in the face. It was then I did my job.

"Oh boy, here I go. Krillin," properly addressing the midget for the first time, "You fly over to that cliff near your friend. I'll go and distract the Prince long enough for you to acquire the Spirit Bomb from your friend and to fire it at Vegeta. It doesn't matter if it means I'll die in the passing, as long as you at least injure Vegeta enough that he doesn't blow up the Earth."

I flew off before the midget could protest. Placing myself behind the ape that was Vegeta, I turned my back on him and hurled a Masenko at the ki sphere that posed for the moon. I looked away quickly, knowing if I stared at it too long, I would become like Vegeta: a giant ape. After making sure my ki would overwhelm the sphere, I switched my attention to Vegeta. Steeling myself, I attacked.

GOKU

When Vegeta threw that ki blast at me, I was actually sure I was dead. But then a silhouette appeared against the light. At first, I thought it was Krillin. But then I sensed his ki on a mountain far away, and I was confused. Upon closer inspection, the profile in the light was not that of my best friend. For one thing, it had hair, and a tail to boot! I couldn't sense any ki from the guy either, which was really strange.

I stopped mulling when the little guy swept away the ki blast like it was a fly. I started in surprise, shifting my Bomb a little bit. But I immediately refocused on the task at hand when he yelled, "Fire the Spirit Bomb now!"

I was all ready to fire it, but then I realized that my Bomb would never hit Vegeta right, he was at too much of an angle. I was ready to do something I knew I would regret later, when Krillin appeared on the rock next to me.

Krillin yelled, "Hey Goku! The guy that appeared, he's going to distract Vegeta while you give me the Spirit Bomb so that I can throw it at Vegeta and end this fight!"

My face must have lit up. I flung the Bomb at Krillin, and screamed in pain as my broken legs moved. From my excellent view, I could inspect the unknown warrior better. He had black spiky hair, a green gi over a black undershirt on, a tail twitching in the air so like what my own tail had done. He wore a look of cocky concentration. No, not cocky, but a cover for another emotion, fear I would guess. As he turned from firing a ki blast in the air, I saw his features. My eyes widened at how similar his features were to my brother Raditz'. My mind flashed back to the picture of my dead son Gohan; he had had features relatively like Raditz' too.

I wondered _Could this be Gohan, actually alive during those three years. He's grown a lot and he fights well too! Wow!_

I watched the boy wait for Vegeta to go back to normal, then he attacked. I marveled to see him in action. He was lightning-quick in his punches, his kicks, and his dodges. I saw him look in Krillin's direction, and I saw my long time friend had my Spirit Bomb firmly in hand. The boy warrior gave Vegeta a final kick and ki blast, and then he vaulted off into the air. At that moment, Krillin shot the Bomb at Vegeta.

With a yell, Vegeta was blasted away by the Bomb. Krillin flew to my spot, celebrating in joy.

"We did it Goku! We defeated Vegeta! Whoopee!"

I looked for the unknown fighter, but he was gone. He had disappeared as quickly as he had come. I sighed, for I had wanted to thank him for helping us when we needed him.

I told Krillin, "Vegeta's still alive. He was badly injured by the Spirit Bomb, but he'll live."

Krillin started. "What! Vegeta's still alive? Then why don't we do away with him while we can! I mean, the guy's a threat to Earth! He almost killed us all!"

I responded, "Krillin, he has a right to live just like you do! Now that he is injured, he can't kill anyone else! Who knows, maybe he'll stop his evil ways and do good from now on!" (Lame excuse I know, but it sounded like Goku!)

Krillin sighed and shook his head. "I don't know, Goku…"

The atmosphere resounded with the rumble of Vegeta's space pod as it rose in the air, no doubt bound for space and beyond.

KAKKHAN

I watched Prince Vegeta's space pod fly away with my emotions in turmoil. Being near the man I knew as Kakkarot who the midget Krillin called Goku, I had been assaulted by feelings I never thought I would feel. As soon as even a Saiyan's eyes could no longer see Vegeta's space pod, I set out from my hiding place to Janden's Warphole. I had flashed immediately after the Spirit Bomb had hit Vegeta in order to avoid any questions or any contact with the midget and Kakkarot. Finding the Warphole, I used my ki to lift me up and fly over to he destination. The Warphole was ready and waiting to be opened. Looking back out at the direction of the mismatched pair of fighters, I mentally saluted them. Opening the seal on the Warphole, I went home.

GOKU

After Vegeta's space pod disappeared from the air, Krillin hoisted me up and over his shoulder. He grunted, "Gosh Goku, you're heavy!"

I grinned through the pouring sweating pain of my legs being moved.

"Thanks Krillin. Eating Chi's food does tend to make you pack a few pounds."

A brief bark of laughter erupted from my friend. He lifted us into the sky and flew all the way to Bulma's house. There I met Chichi for the first time since my death at Raditz' hands.

Chichi probably would have hugged me if not for the bad condition I was in. Instead she contented herself with yelling.

I winced at her voice screeching at me. "GOKU, WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME? I WAS ALL ALONE EXCEPT FOR BULMA AND WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED TO ME? DID YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT HOW I WOULD FEEL, FIRST WITH GOHAN DEAD AND THEN YOU?"

At that last sentence I said, "But Chi, our son may not be dead!"

My wife stopped her ranting and just stared at me. I exhaled in relief. I was actually sure my ears were about to start bleeding. Krillin stared at me too, a little puzzlement in his face, but with understanding drowning out the puzzlement. Bulma looked like she was trying to remember something, but couldn't quite catch it.

Chichi said, "Gohan? Not dead? You had better explain this to me, mister!" I winced again at Chichi reverting back to her usual self.

"Well, Chi, it's a long story, but we have time."

ON GIENDON

Kakkhan finished breaking the seal on the Warphole. He heard three-taloned footsteps behind him, along with a set of unfamiliar footsteps. He turned around to find Janden walking towards him. With him strode a seven-foot-tall green man wearing a purple gi, a white cape over it, and a white turban with a purple jewel set on the top of it. On his arms were patches of pink pads, which actually went well with his green skin. On each side of the turban, pointed ears rose like a ship's prow. The mouth drew back to reveal white fangs. The rest of the face was made of battle-hardened cheeks, a sturdy nose, and eyes that stared incessantly into one's mind.

The pair reached Kakkhan and stopped. Janden said, "Kakkhan, I would like you to meet a friend of mine. This is Piccolo, the Namekian I pointed out to you during the fight between the Saiyans two and a half-years ago. Piccolo," turning to the Namekian, "this is Kakkhan. He is the one you will work with over the next two years. Thank you for doing this favor for me, even if you did agree to it a bit grudgingly."

Piccolo answered, "But I did accept the offer to pay you back, and I'll do it." (I have no idea if this sounds like Piccolo or not.)

Janden nodded a little ruefully. Then he clapped his hands and mumbled something about having to meet someone for an important meeting and rushed off. He left a Namekian and a child Saiyan sizing each other up, searching for anything they could use against one another.

Finally Kakkhan said, "Well. Nice to meet you, Mr. Piccolo."

Piccolo smiled briefly. "Likewise. Let's get going." He motioned for Kakkhan to show the way to the fourth training G-dome.

Kakkhan led the way, thinking _What a challenge it will be not only to fight a Namekian, but also to learn their techniques. If I know Janden, I'll also be learning a bit of the Namekian language, along with the languages I already know: Laniin, Human, Saiyago, Gorthan, and others: Raelin, Qwithi, and Iogoroth. _Kakkhan grinned. _I like what Life's given me so far._


	5. Attack of Frieza, King Cold, and Cooler Part One

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

:~:~:

Chapter Five: Attack of Frieza, King Cold, and Cooler Part One

:~:~:

A month passed. Krillin and Goku went to Namek, found the Dragonballs, defeated the Ginyu Force, and wished everyone back to life. Vegeta re-arrived on Earth to search for the Dragonballs. Hearing that Krillin and Goku had gone to Namek, he met the "onna" Bulma, and decided to live with her instead of going to Namek. Two months later, the pair married, and they had Trunks nine months later than that. Two weeks after Trunks, Goten was born the Son family. Piccolo came back every so often from the place he had wandered off to; other than that, the Z-gang didn't even sense his ki on Earth at all. That didn't worry them.

Krillin and Marron, his current girlfriend, broke up and went their separate ways. Tien and Chiaotzu went to Tibet, where Chiaotzu was the current Dalai Lama. Yamcha went to America to play baseball. Goku and Chichi lived their life as usual, raising their son Goten as they would have Gohan, with a few exceptions. They moved to Capsule Corps to live with Bulma and Vegeta. Master Roshi, Oolong, and Puar stayed on Kame Island, keeping Krillin company.

Kakkhan continued his training and his studies. He was a Super Saiyan Two now, and nine Giendonese years of age. On Earth, he would be seven years of age, and seven years older than his little brother. He had learned a lot of Namekian in addition to Saiyago, the language of the Saiyans. Kakkhan developed his telepathic and emphatic abilities under both Aslib and Piccolo, and was at present trying to see if he could do astral projection. Astral projection is the projection of the mind outside the body, and enables the projector to go places where normally the body would not be able to go. As a result, Kakkhan knew a lot about the people and the Z-gang on Earth than even Piccolo suspected. He knew he had a younger brother, he knew who his parents were, but not their names. He was happy that his family was able to move on in their lives without him.

Kakkhan had once read the mind of one of his teachers, and knew of the triple threat that approached Earth. He also knew that he was going, as expected. So he trained harder than ever, much to Piccolo's, Rerun's, Aslib's, and Janden's approval. His new training also meant that he had his academics in the morning instead of in the afternoon. He was so exhausted after the training that he could barely concentrate on his studies. After a month, Piccolo's halo faded.

Every once in a while, Piccolo disappeared. He always came back, although that wouldn't always be the case. When Kakkhan went back to Earth to battle the Cold family, Piccolo was going with him. The Namekian wasn't going to return.

Kakkhan knew this, and spent some time getting to know the Namekian, more than what he would have done for any other teacher on Giendon. Deep down, Piccolo actually kind of appreciated that. Now they knew each other inside and out and then some.

Then the day arrived. The dangerous and tyrannous Cold family was now in landing range of Earth. It was time for Kakkhan to come to Earth's rescue once again.

GIENDON, NAMEK

KAKKHAN

I opened the seal on my newly created Warphole to Namek. I was going there first to let Piccolo know how his people were doing. Then I planned to IT to Earth and do my business with the Cold family there. Then I was going to meet a future somebody from an alternate timeline and an alternate fate.

I motioned to Piccolo. My seven-foot tall sensei hesitated, then went forward at my mental reassurance. I waved goodbye to an emotional (again) Balannon and jumped into the Warphole.

PICCOLO

The next thing I knew aside from falling into a deep pentagonal tunnel, I was on my home planet Namek. The kid stepped out of the 'Hole after me, and grinned.

He said to me, "Well, Mr. Piccolo, we made it!"

I sighed in relief. I hadn't liked going through that nasty Warphole. I felt better on ground.

Looking around once more, sensing Namekians coming, the kid nodded. He saluted me and put two fingers to his forehead. He closed his eyes, concentrating, then in a blink of an eye, the kid was gone.

I sighed. I hadn't really known how much of an impact that kid had had on my life up until now. I thought of the Saiyan's always-cheerful face and thoughts; one of the thoughts in particular made me smirk to myself. Then I felt someone tug at my cape. I looked down on a little green face.

I smiled briefly at the future Guardian of the Earth.

"Hello Dende."

EARTH

KAKKHAN

I landed on Earth quite near where Kakkarot lived. I made sure I landed in shadows, so no Earthling could freak out and call some hotline saying there were aliens on Earth. Not that there weren't any, of course. I cast my mental senses to see where the Z-senshi were and if their positions posed any threat to me where I stood.

None of them did. I drew a deep breath and began to speak mentally in the minds of all the Z-senshi. I even spoke in the minds of my mother and the aqua-haired woman, my brother and Vegeta's son.

'I know you can hear me. Don't worry, you are not hallucinating. Yes, this is actually happening. Now, don't ask me any questions, but there is a threat approaching Earth. Three threats, actually. They are extremely strong, but if you work together, you can defeat them. If all of you can assemble quietly at Capsule Corps, that will bring you to the spot where you can intercept the Cold family. It will not be long before the Cold family will come, and then you'll have the fight for the Earth on your shoulders again. Thank you for listening. Again, this is not a hallucination, and I am not an enemy. I hope you listen to that last part as well as you listened to the main idea of my message, because all of it is true.'

I sighed again. The telepathy had been a little harder than I had thought, and I was slightly tired. I pushed it aside when I saw Kakkarot come out with Prince Vegeta. I checked to make sure the shadows I had wreathed around me were intact; I didn't want to be seen and made a fuss over longer than I had to. Besides, my Headmistress' warning of a year and a half ago rang in my head.

My Saiyan hearing twitched. I heard Kakkarot saying, "Vegeta, can you tell whether that telepathy was real or not?"

Vegeta glared at him. "Kakkarot, of course that telepathy was real! You should know that as well as any Saiyan!"

Kakkarot scratched the back of his head. "Well, I wasn't a Saiyan, so how would I know?"

Vegeta "humph" and turned away. The midget Krillin glided in from the air, along with the scar-face, the three-eyed man, and the little clown. The old man with a white beard and sunglasses climbed out an airplane followed by the pig and the floating blue cat. The aqua-haired woman came out holding Vegeta's son in her arms. Following her, my mother came out with my little brother. They all greeted each other and started to chat nervously about what was going to happen.

I smiled at the sight of my little brother. I must have transmitted my amusement, because my brother looked up suddenly at my spot. His eyes seemed to burn through the darkness, they were so wondering and alert. Looking away, he looked up at my mother. By some means, he got her attention and pointed in my direction.

In a panic, I flashed to another shadowy spot, still in view of the Z-senshi. When I peeked, I saw that the squirt meister had shifted his finger to point to my new spot. I sighed and remained in my current spot.

My mother looked down at her son, and asked him, "What is it, sweetie? Do you want something?"

Little bro kept pointing, but he did nod his head. I marveled at the control of motion the little tot had already at around four months of age. I guess it must have had something to do with the Saiyan blood he had, for I didn't know. I shook my head, cursing the [cleaning] for erasing my memory for the first time in my life. I reached out with my senses and touched my little brother's mind. There I found a beginning hunger. But apparently he had forgotten his huge Saiyan appetite in favor of something far more interesting: me.

I grinned to myself, then said, 'Hey, little one. Ya hungry?' That set him off. Then Vegeta's son joined in. everyone clapped their hands over their ears and made the women go inside. Now if my brother was going to point, I didn't have to see him do it. So I settled in my shadows and waited.

CHICHI

I hurried down the hall to my baby Goten's room. I had just fed him and was going to check on him. I turned the corner and found my son pointing at the wall where I had come from. His outstretched finger changed direction to point at the window. I looked out of it into the shadows. I thought I saw something in there. A figure, perhaps? Whatever it was, Goten was pointing at it. I shook my head. I knew he didn't want his daddy. Whenever Goten wanted Goku, he just opened and closed his hands with a beseeching look on his face. The expression he had on now was one of wonderment and curiosity. I beamed at him and looked out the window again. (I seem to have Chichi doing that a lot in every one of my fics, hehe.) Everyone who was fighting blasted off into the air. I watched them go with a sudden feeling of a subtle lack of security.

I don't think that the insecurity came from the fighters leaving. Rather, I think it had to do something with the profile in the shadows. I turned around to find Goten pointing in a different direction than before. I thought that whatever he had been pointing at had just left us too, and that was the source of the vulnerability I was feeling. Hit was like when the silhouette was there in the shadows, I was safe. Without it, I was not so safe. Exchanging glances with my son, I saw he kind of felt disturbed too.

Resettling myself, I smiled quickly again at Goten and whispered, "I know, Goten, I feel the same way."

MEANWHILE

The Z-senshi landed in a barren place, devoid of any life. That was the best place for a battle like the one that was going to ensue. Everyone got settled, even Kakkhan. Kakkhan was in a place selected for its nearness and for its being out of sight to the Z-gang.

It wasn't long before everyone sensed three new kis, all dangerously high. Goku frowned, Krillin gulped, Kakkhan in his shadows remained neutral, and Vegeta curled a lip. Vegeta loathed Frieza for enslaving the proud Saiyan race, for blowing up Vegeta-sei, and for the simple reason that the dishonorable bastard had betrayed his parents and killed them.

Tien just blinked, while Chiaotzu stumbled in terror. Master Roshi and Yamcha shook with growing horror. Up at the Lookout, Mr. Popo was O-mouthed, and Kami was trembling also. The wide-eyed and fanged grimace on a normally unshakeable Kami showed just how bad the situation was.

Traveling back down Korin Tower, Korin the Cat was balancing on the rail. His inscrutable face was even more unfathomable than usual. Yajirobe, as usual, was just pigging out like the lazy glut he was.

Journeying back to the present situation, everyone gasped as a huge spaceship landed out of nowhere. An opening, unnoticed until now, formed in the sheer black mass of the spaceship. It delved down into a ramp that revealed an even blacker mass of space inside. Kakkhan saw more in that space than anyone else there, and immediately phased into the middle of the group. He put up a ki shield surrounding the Z-senshi and himself. The fighters looked everywhere for the source, not really noticing the kid in their midst. However, Kakkhan had put up the shield none too soon. As soon as the walkway hit the ground, three enormous ki beams erupted out of the shadows.

The Humans and Goku ducked. Vegeta and Kakkhan did not. The ki beams bounced of Kakkhan's ki shield and shot back at their origin. They didn't manage to kill the Cold family, but the spaceship was blown up. Kakkhan winced at the damage done to him through his ki shield. Vegeta, finally noticing the kid, glared at the latter's face. Kakkhan shook it off as he did his spiky hair. He returned his concentration to the three figures silhouetted in the smoke that always followed after a big explosion. After a while, Vegeta did the same.

The Prince's lip curled again when he caught sight of Frieza. Kakkhan lowered his head and stared at Cooler beneath his eyebrows, lending intensity to his already cold features. Goku chance glanced at the youngest pure blood Saiyan and nearly backed a step or two away. Shivering, he wondered who the kid was and what he was doing here, but turned back to his target: King Cold.

Simultaneously, the trio stepped forward. They strode past Kakkhan's ki shield, and then Kakkhan hardened it so no one encased in it could come out of its protection, nor could anyone from outside enter it.

There was a sudden shimmering of air to the Saiyans' left. Another warrior stalked out of the disturbance. He had shot black spikes encased in a ponytail; one was left to drift freely around his face. He wore a navy jacket and jeans over a black shirt with "CAPSULE CORPS" written across it. he looked slightly familiar, but that wasn't the point. What was the point was that he had a monstrous ki ball ready in his hand.

The stranger threw the ball at King Cold; with that the battle began. An unspoken agreement led to Vegeta and Goku attacking Frieza at the same time. They finished him off easily as Super Saiyans and stood back to watch the others fight. The newcomer's hair turned golden also, and a flare of golden ki radiated around him. With a yell of "_banzai!_" he launched a series of punches and kicks at King Cold that he couldn't block. A final punch knocked King Cold to the ground; with a ki blast, the stranger finished him off.

Kakkhan's hair shifted from black to gold. Wasting no time, he flew into the air above Cooler and yelled, "Laurenaren!" He brought up his arm and spread his fingers. A blood-red ring formed between them. As soon as the Ring formed, Kakkhan's pupils dilated from the pain it caused him. Ignoring it, he poured more ki into it, making it more powerful and more painful to him.

The newcomer's, Goku's, and Vegeta's heads shot up at Kakkhan's pained triumphant yell as the Ring was cast from his hand at Cooler.


	6. Attack of Frieza, King Cold, and Cooler Part Two

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

:~:~:

Chapter Six: Attack of Frieza, King Cold, and Cooler Part Two

:~:~:

Kakkhan's hair shifted from black to gold. Wasting no time, he flew into the air above Cooler and yelled, "Laurenaren!" He brought up his arm and spread his fingers. A blood-red ring formed between them. As soon as the Ring formed, Kakkhan's pupils dilated from the pain it caused him. Ignoring it, he poured more ki into it, making it more powerful and more painful to him.

The newcomer's, Goku's, and Vegeta's heads shot up at Kakkhan's pained triumphant yell as the Ring was cast from his hand at Cooler.

"NA!"

The Ring rotated in the air almost lazily towards Cooler. Then, at the last minute, tendrils shot out of the Laurenarena Ring and zapped Cooler. Cooler's head snapped back with the pain. His irises completely disappeared as his pupils distended and drowned them out. His whole body convulsed with pain, the tendrils tormenting him. When the main body, the Ring itself, it was the last straw.

Cooler's body exploded. Vegeta crinkled his nose in disgust. The newcomer stared at Kakkhan. The boy was really in a bad state. But his work was not yet done.

The Laurenarena Ring floated in the air. To the Z-senshi, it seemed like it was sizing them up for its next victim. Gritting his teeth, Kakkhan spread his fingers again. The new warrior's eyes widened, and he screamed in a deep baritone voice, "Don't do it, young one! It'll destroy you!"

Kakkhan's guardian was too late. With a spin, the Ring shot at its maker. Kakkhan set his pupil-dilated eyes on the thing, and held out his scarred right hand. The Ring zipped to the piece of flesh like lightning to a lightning rod. As blood-red Ring met skin and bone, a blood-curdling scream rent the air. Everyone's hair stood on end and all stared at the young warrior in the sky screaming his heart out.

Through his own scream, Kakkhan fought to re-absorb his creation. A last-ditch effort, and the Ring came back. Kakkhan clutched his right arm; it was paralyzed and badly scorched. Landing on the ground, Kakkhan gave a final shriek of pain, and mercifully blacked out.

Kakkhan was swimming around in nothingness. Occasionally red bolts of pain dashed through the blackness, but Kakkhan had gone through so much pain recently that the bolts failed to get a reaction out of him. Kakkhan drifted on.

He began to encounter gold orbs of ki and blue swords of [presence]. Without a thought, the child Saiyan paused to collect them as they came by. He didn't know why he was gathering them; he just knew he needed them. He didn't really have a choice.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Kakkhan drifted to the one place the orbs and the swords avoided. This was the darkest place in his mind, and yet the most full of light. Kakkhan swam towards it, his normally bright unfathomable eyes dull. Another red bolt of pain hit him. Kakkhan didn't notice. He was too drawn toward the bulge of light and dark in one.

As he came closer, the bulge grew whiter. Kakkhan stepped closer to it, feeling something other than dull. A faint ray of peacefulness filtered in to the dark of the innermost sanctum of his mind. Another bolt hit him; he didn't stop. Just one step separated Kakkhan and the light encased in the bubble of darkness. Kakkhan expected another red bolt to hit him; he had gotten used to them. None came.

Kakkhan tiredly lifted his shoulders and returned to the light. He examined it slowly, wondering what he was waiting for. A frown sluggishly surfaced in between his eyebrows, and he backed away from the light. Suddenly the light didn't seem beautiful anymore; it was a nasty clawing greedy sickly ugly thing that wanted him. It wanted him, it wanted him with a vengeance and a sweet discordance in its harmony. He wasn't going to let it have him. Turning around, Kakkhan languidly drifted off. The orbs of ki and swords of [presence] returned, and Kakkhan picked them up as they approached. Red bolts flitted alongside him, but didn't hit him.

Rather, they seemed to be guiding him. To what, Kakkhan didn't care. Picking up an orb, he looked in the direction he thought was down. another frown appeared in between his eyebrows. Squatting down Kakkhan reached down to where a red bolt had emerged. Pain rushed through his right arm, but it didn't faze him. Pawing through the dark of his mind, Kakkhan created a hole. He looked through to find another light.

The one was different from the howling pure light Kakkhan had just left in its sheath. The one beckoned to him, yes, but it didn't force him to come. Kakkhan looked back at his mind, and bent to pick up yet another blue sword. When he had settled the sword with his others, he turned back to the harsh artificial fluorescent light, and stepped out of the boundaries of his mind.

The boy groaned and moved. Goku rushed over to his bed, a squalling Goten in his arms. Chichi, Bulma, Yamcha, Krillin, Master Roshi, and the newcomer followed. Vegeta just leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, his style. Trunks looked around, wondering why Goten had started wailing. Bulma's parents, of whom Trunks was in the present company of, looked around too. Mrs. Briefs bubbled worriedly about "that poor sweet boy who saved our lives" and clutched her husband's arm, while Dr. Briefs just patted her hand.

Kakkhan opened his eyes. The pupils were still dilated. The newcomer grimaced in concern. Then Kakkhan blinked, and the pupils were normal. They shrank away from the severe fluorescent light that was the trademark of all hospitals. Now the stranger grinned. The grin smoothed away the frown in the forehead and brought forth a handsome young man of eighteen years.

Seeing the grin, Kakkhan tried to smile back. He barely succeeded. Closing his eyes, he ventured into the stranger's mind. Strangely enough, a thin wall of flexible ki glass blocked Kakkhan. Kakkhan knew the wall well; it was the same thing that encircled his own mind and kept out any intruders.

Kakkhan chuckled mentally. He sent a query pinging against the wall of the future person's mind, 'Are you the person from the future I was told about. If so, then I demand to know your identity. I suppose these other people would like to know too.'

That brought another grin to the future stranger's face.

He dispatched back, 'My name is Son Kakkhan, but you can call Gohan.'

Kakkhan reopened his eyes. The onyx depths of his eyes were now hidden by his usual mischievous twinkle. A grin spread across his face.

He said, "So stranger, are you forgetting your manners? You haven't introduced yourself, Son Gohan."

Everyone stared at the stranger, now revealed as Son Gohan. Mirai Kakkhan sighed. He should have known his past self was up to something.

Mirai Kakkhan glared at Kakkhan while he said, "My name is indeed Son Gohan, and I am the future self of the Gohan in this timeline, wherever he may be. If I am alive, then so is your son. But please don't address me as anything other than Gohan."

Kakkhan smirked again. All heads turned towards Vegeta as he spoke.

"If you're from the future, then what are you doing here?"

Mirai Kakkhan smiled. "Still the same old Vegeta. That's good to know." Ignoring Vegeta's scowl, Mirai Kakkhan went on. "I'm here from the future to tell you that my Dad has a rare heart disease. If you die, Dad, before the Androids come, then the future of your timeline will as bleak as mine is right now. I don't want that, for anybody.

"In my timeline, everything is dead and destroyed. Everyone I see in this room except for Trunks, Goten, and Bulma are dead. You see, in three years, two Androids will come. They love to destroy, and are much stronger than I am at my maximum. Only if we train hard, then perhaps we can defeat them. after I give the heart disease medicine to you, Dad, I'll be off back to my timeline. But I'll be back in 3 years."

Mirai Kakkhan finished. He looked at the stunned faces of everyone present, except Kakkhan and duo of Goten and Trunks. Kakkhan had his impassive mask firmly in place. G &amp; T were just babies. M. Kakkhan waited for an answer.

He got one in the form of "How strong are you, brat?" from Vegeta. That released the tension in the air, and everyone started to talk to either M. Kakkhan or themselves. Goku and Chichi walked over to their eighteen-year-old son and chatter with them, asking who was the person on the bed, for they obviously seemed to know each other. M. Kakkhan gave his father the medicine, then answered the question.

"Yes, the young one and I do know each other. no, I am not going to tell who he is. If he wants his name to be given, he'll give it himself, not through other people." Chichi smiled in exasperation and asked him another question.

It was just starting to get really loud when—

A nurse came in. she stopped and stared at all the people in her assigned patient's room. Then she pointed out the door. Taking the hint, everyone said bye and filed out of the room.

The nurse checked Kakkhan over. That was when Kakkhan noticed for the first time the wrapped state his arm was in. It was bandages from elbow to wrist, and very tightly too. Kakkhan would have wondered that he couldn't feel anything if he hadn't known the Laurenarena Ring had paralyzed his arm. Pain marched through the rest of him as he struggled to sit up and inspect his arm more closely. The nurse pushed him back into the pillows and continued checking his vitals.

Satisfied he was all right, she left. As soon as the door closed and the lights went out, Kakkhan waited, to make sure no one else was coming. Then he called, his voice an echoing whisper in the silence.

"You can come out now, _Gohan_. You're safe."

Shadows in the corner peeled away to show his future self. M. Kakkhan grinned slightly, his real side showing through to his own self. All the worries he had been carrying around in his own timeline showed through in his face, but they were temporarily put aside for himself, literally.

"Hey, I know you're in a lot of pain. Let me tell you what's happening to you. The Laurenarena Ring has paralyzed you, painfully enough to spread from your hand to the rest of you. But even if your hand wasn't paralyzed, the grip would be way weaker than normal. A Senzu bean will get rid of the paralysis and most of the weakness in your arm. However, your hand will never be as strong in grip as it once was, unless you take the time and the pains to strengthen it once again."

Kakkhan smiled feebly. "You sounded like a doctor when you said that." He sighed. "What do I do to make my hand go back to normal?"

M. Kakkhan's mouth twitched mirthlessly. "Well, before I tell you, I have to give you a Senzu bean."

He opened his jacket to reveal two huge pockets. M. Kakkhan dug into the left one and brought out a capsule. Kakkhan raised a brow. The capsule blew up to reveal a kind of chemistry lab. Jars, test tubes, and beakers filled every inch of the table they sat on. It all seemed so disorganized to Kakkhan. Future Kakkhan found what he was looking for and produced a small jar with a special clasp. The jar was filled to the brim with Senzu beans. Popping off the clasp, the future gave a bean to the past.

Kakkhan sat up again and grabbed the bean with his left hand. Opening his mouth, the child Super Saiyan Two downed the nasty tasting Senzu bean.

The sluggish feeling in his arm disappeared. There was no pain when Kakkhan moved his arm, nor when he flexed his fingers and rotated his wrist. Clenching his right fist, he found Mirai Kakkhan was right. His fist was weaker in clutch.

Then a sudden foreign though came into Kakkhan's head. 'It might be a good idea if you learned to be an ambidextrous while your hand gets stronger. And strengthening both hands might be cool, too.'

Looking at M. Kakkhan, Kakkhan nodded in exasperation. Then he cocked an eyebrow. M. Kakkhan nodded his head at Kakkhan's unspoken question.

Mirai Kakkhan turned back to his mini lab. He capsulated it and put it into his left pocket. Putting a hand into the right inside pocket, he drew up another capsule. Kakkhan raised both eyebrows this time, indicating his interest. MK chuckled at the mixed expressions on his past self's face.

Shaking his head, MK gave the capsule to Kakkhan. Then he backed away, clearing the floor. An explosion later, Kakkhan was faced with a wooden box. Inside were balls and dumbbells and other things that all helped to work out muscles. Kakkhan stared at all the things.

M. Kakkhan said, "One-armed handstands and chin raised would do good too." A smirk hovered on the older Kakkhan's lips. Kakkhan sighed and shooed M. Kakkhan out of the room to get his purifying sleep.


	7. Tempus Fugit

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

:~:~:

Chapter Seven: Tempus Fugit

:~:~:

5 days later, Mirai Kakkhan returned to his time line. Goku and Chichi waved goodbye to the vision of their missing son very grown up. Little did they know, their seven-year-old son of this time line was right under their noses. True, the unknown boy did make them wonder, but they kept their wondering to themselves.

Kakkhan also left, this time for Giendon. After he IT'd to Namek to return Piccolo and install Dende on Earth, he said goodbye to his new friends. Goten and Trunks were really the ones Kakkhan felt sad at leaving. The past few days had seen Kakkhan spending a lot of time near these two. Whether or not it was to provide comfort for Goten and Trunks or for himself, it didn't matter. He formed a strong mental link to them, so Kakkhan would always be there for them if they needed him.

But then it was time to leave. Kakkhan bid his final goodbye to Goten and Trunks and waved his hand from down to up. After his fingers passed, the air shimmered and a hole was created. This was the Warphole Kakkhan used so often. All of the Z-senshi excepting Piccolo, he had an odd look on his face, were interested in what he was doing. Kakkhan ignored them.

Focusing, he called out in Laniin, "Giendon crun algoloth weirith granard!" (Lead me now to Giendon!) The rip in distance widened and stiffened. In the clearing, black space speckled with bright sparks yawned a welcome to Kakkhan. The boy warrior's mouth twitched at the ends. Not looking back, he stepped into it. He was swallowed up by the sparkling dusky space as he closed the seal behind him.

The fighters and the non-fighters looked on as he left them. They were suddenly onset with a terrible feeling of insecurity. Goten, who had steadily grown more miserable from the time he had woken up two hours ago, burst into wailing tears. Trunks joined him, adding more clatter. This enforced Vegeta's explosive temper and he glared at Bulma and Chichi. He was about to yell for them to shut the brats up, but the objects of his temper ceased on their own. A wave of calm and 'It's all right, guys. I'll be back' had come from wherever their friend had gone and soothed their disappointment. Trunks snuggled back into his mother's arms, while Goten looked at the swirling after image of the Warphole and pointed. He looked up at Chichi, who stared at him with a sad smile gracing her face.

Bulma and Goku noticed Goten's pointing. Startled, they looked at Chichi, then each other, then back at Goten. Vegeta just humphed and went back to the GR. Bulma knew better. Just the fact that Vegeta hadn't grumbled nearly as much when she told he had to come said a lot about the respect the Prince had for this warrior. (Weird character I'm making Vegeta into. LOL.) Another actuality that contributed to this knowledge was that Vegeta had even stayed this long.

Slowly, life returned to what could be called normal in their sense. Goku, Chichi, and Bulma went back into the Capsule building. Bulma's parents soon followed. Krillin, Master Roshi, Puar, and Oolong flew in a plane back to Kame Island. Yamcha hopped on a red-eye back to America to finish the baseball season. Tien and Chiaotzu disappeared to Tibet again, while Piccolo took Dende to the Lookout. There he introduced Mr. Popo to Dende, and gave the responsibility of the little Namekian god over to him. Piccolo and Kami then merged together in preparation for the Androids.

After he had done these responsibilities, Piccolo flew back to his waterfall. He had some serious meditation to do.

KAKKHAN

I sighed as I finally stepped back out of the Warphole. I was tired and hungry, but I still had to close the seal. I did so, yawning hugely. I looked about my mental bonds appreciatively. There was Piccolo's, Janden's, Balannon's, Goten's, Trunks', M. Kakkhan, Chichi's, and Dende's. I had thought of making one with either Goku or Vegeta, but I decided against it, especially the latter. I stopped at Goten and Trunks' links. The feelings rolling along on the link were major disappointment and sadness. If I knew them well enough at that age, they'd be bawling their lil' hearts out. Reaching to the connection, I sent them feelings of calmness and 'It's all right, guys. I'll be back'. Sensing them calm down, I withdrew from my internal state.

Outside of my mind, it seemed no one knew I was back. I frowned for a bit, but realized that it was literally midnight, so everyone and every beast would be asleep. A big yawn overtook me. Stumbling slightly, my tail helping me stay up, I tottered to Tyeler's door. It opened after a few stomps, and I could hear Tyeler grumbling under his? hers? its? breath. It seemed I had woken Tyeler up from a most enjoyable sleep. However, once Tyeler identified me, he/she/it brightened considerably. He/she/it ushered me in the door.

'Hello, Kakkhan, or rather, good night. You're beat, I can tell. Go to sleep, there'll be food for you in the morn.'

I guess that the combination of the fight and the Warphole took more out of me than I thought, for within fifty seconds after falling into my oh so comfortable bed, I had technically conked out completely. Just before I drifted into sleep, a nagging sense of bottled up pain filtered into my head.

AND SO IT GOES

Two long years limped by. Chichi and Goku moved in with Bulma and Vegeta. They were very protective of Goten when he turned two, but nothing happened. Chichi then started, or tried to start, tutoring Goten. If it weren't for the complete dunderheadness that Goten possessed, and that Goku protested vehemently against it, Chichi would have succeeded. Normally, that wouldn't have daunted her, but one night, a cool presence invaded her mind. Chichi felt secure, as secure as when a certain boy Saiyan was around. That was when the dream warrior himself came.

Walking towards her, the as-yet-unidentified boy looked for all the world like he was the Prince of the Dream Realm. His short spikier black hair glittered in the reflection of those dream bubbles everyone seems to have. His face was soft yet closed, and his stance was that of a fighter's. His eyes held a guarded look in them, with a hidden pain lurking in the onyx depths. He wore his traditional garb of green gi and black undershirt; his fighter's colors. His right ear was pierced three times in the cartilage, and another earring graced the cartilage in his left ear. Chichi shuddered at the sight. This simple act drew a slight smile from the dream warrior. Chichi, noting the odd angle it was set in, waited expectantly for him to speak.

'Chichi, let Goten have his childhood. I didn't have one when I was his age, and I still don't have one. Please refrain from instituting his education until he is of six years of age. And threaten your husband with your frying pan if he even so much as thinks about training Goten until he's the same age.'

His voice was a quarter-octave deeper than the last time Chichi had heard it, yet somehow it was fitting for him. Chichi nodded seriously at that last comment. She didn't know why she wasn't arguing with him about Goten, but she wasn't. A small chuckle percolated from the warrior's throat.

'I bet you're probably wondering why we aren't having a heated discussion about this. It's because in your dream state, you're more open to ideas and questions than you are when you're conscious. Now, don't take this personally, but I think I like you better when you're awake and fully conscious that when you're asleep.'

Chichi glared in her sleep. His mouth twisted wryly, then settled into a frown. Chichi ventured forth a question. She was actually surprised when he voice came out. She wasn't used to speaking in her dreams; her voice carried a bit of doubt in it. The Dream Prince caught this and looked at Chichi.

'What's wrong?'

He smiled appreciatively. 'Oh. It's just that my room is trying to wake me up, and isn't succeeding. It's becoming daylight in your hemisphere of the Earth anyway. I'd better go. Goodbye Chichi, and use that frying pan.' (*Snickers* Like she needs the encouragement.)

With that comment, Chichi's dream visitor faded. Chichi cried out, 'Don't go! I need to know if you know my son Gohan!' The statement just burst out of her without warning. She hadn't even know she had been wondering that until now.

The last of his voice rang in her subconscious. 'Yes, I know your son. Let me tell you, he is doing well. Your Gohan is taking care of himself, and quite well at that.'

Chichi's dream settings turned inky, then light again. But this was sunlight, and no dream. Chichi woke up with a weird feeling of insecurity, but couldn't remember why. She shrugged, knowing it would come to her later, and went on with her life.

She told Goten he could go out and play, and not study. When Goku looked up, she could read the hope and excitement in those eyes. He opened his mouth, but before he could say, "Great! Then I can train him!" Chichi got out her trusty frying pan of Armageddon and threatened her husband. Goku shut his mouth and listened to Chichi as she delivered her strange terms.

Another year faltered in passing. Before anyone could say, "Saiyan Warriors", it was time for the Android's terrible reign to begin.


	8. Of Meditation and of Danger Inside Kakkhan's Head

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior (PG-13)**

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, Giendon-sei, a few techniques, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone. I also do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or InuYasha.

:~:~:

Chapter Eight: Of Meditation and of Danger in Kakkhan's Head

:~:~:

The day before Kakkhan left for Earth to take on the Androids, Kakkhan stood listened to Xian go on about the Saiyan heritage. But the next words he heard caught his attention immensely.

"It is rumored that certain Saiyans have the ability to be immortal. However, this has not been proven as the entire population has either been enslaved or killed, and all of them have died. Of course, the two Saiyans left on Chikyuu-sei are still alive, but even they are mortal."

Kakkhan frowned briefly at the mention of just "two Saiyans still alive", but brushed it off. He shifted in his seat, abruptly stopping Xian. Xian asked, "What is it, Ka-chan? You are distracting me."

A smile flashed on the student's face at the nickname reserved for him especially by Xian. "I was wondering what you meant by certain Saiyans being immortal. What do you mean by certain?"

Xian's bird-like head lifted loftily. He was prod his student was actually listening and ready to make the lesson more interesting. Xian was a fun-loving type and was secretly getting bored with the lesson himself. He threw himself enthusiastically into the sidetracking subject.

"Certain Saiyans are indeed different from all others. Of course, no Saiyan is ever the same, but those Saiyanlings, shall we call them? Saiyanlings are different even from that. Some Saiyanlings are seers, they can see the future, like your grandfather Bardock; some are telekinetic, they can move objects with their minds; and some are simply fighters who are immortal and do not die." Xian shrugged nonchalantly, a few (feathers?) ruffling under his tunic.

"But how can you tell a Saiyanling from a Saiyan? They don't seem to be different, do they?" Kakkhan asked, thinking of his grandfather Bardock.

Xian looked at his student. There had been a wistful tone in his voice that Kakkhan had never had before. Looking at the Saiyan, the bird Qwithi was startled to see that Kakkhan had changed. He was tougher, yet more open, and more willing to be friends with someone. He also seemed to be drifting more into his previous life and away from his current life. Xian was surprised he hadn't noticed this before.

Shaking himself back to reality, Xian smoothed his ruffled feathers and answered Ka-chan's question.

"No, Saiyanlings do not look any different from Saiyans. Or Humans, for that matter. But, there is a certain feeling from them. In the case of an immortal that wishes to do what is right, other people in the immortal's [presence] would feel safe and relaxed. However, when the immortal is not with them, that person feels a bit more tense and unsafe.

"That feeling is for the people that are not the enemies of that immortal. The enemies, when confronted by an immortal Saiyan, feel a sort of dread and an almost uncontrollable need to run away from whatever's causing that feeling." Xian finished up his lecture and waited expectantly for more questions. He got more.

"Does a Saiyanling know if they are gifted, or cursed, however one looks at it?" Kakkhan asked innocently. He had an idea nagging in the back of his head that he couldn't get rid of. He wanted to get as much information out of Xian that he could so that he could try it out.

"Some Saiyanlings now, most do not. How does one test if they are a Saiyanling or not? Why are you sending me that thought, Ka-chan? You are going to see if you are one?" Xian sent a piercing glare to his student.

Kakkhan grinned sheepishly. "You hit the molecule in the nucleus, Xian. Basically, yeah, that's what I'm going to do. So please tell me before class is over!"

Xian brought himself up in mock anger. "Fine, I will tell you, but only because you asked!" The twosome's faces dissolved into grins at the silly joke. Xian put one taloned foot on a chair and leaned down on it until he looked like he was going to fall. That was one of his most comfortable positions, or so Xian claimed. Kakkhan wasn't so sure.

Xian said, "I have a hunch that meditation does the trick. And not just any meditation, but the coma-like meditation."

Kakkhan's eyes widened at the thought of the coma-like meditation. Everyone knew that coma-like meditation, like the name implied, sent your body into a coma-indicative state while you went into your own mind and discovered the many secrets in there. Now that Kakkhan thought about it, that theory did make sense to use for the kind of thing he was about to do.

Just then the omnipresent mental bell rang. Kakkhan groaned and gathered up his books. Xian grinned at his student's eagerness and was rocked by a never-before-noticed feeling of insecurity as Ka-chan left the room. Xian was toppled into a chair when the "aftershocks" ripped through him. Then they left him just as suddenly as they had encountered him and he was left wondering about Saiyanlings and their possible connection to his favorite student.

:~*~:

Kakkhan went through the rest of his day in a daze. It was during the classes that he paid most attention, although none of them ever were as informative as the one with Xian. His schedule was really messed up that months, as final exams were nearly past. He had already taken his Saiyan Heritage one and his Laniin Academics. He had passed both of them with flying colors. He was cramming for his Planet Education final and his Saiyan Ki Arts exams. Those finals were the next day to avoid having Kakkhan fall over in his study chair in exhaustion like he had when he was Giendonese fourteen, two years ago. (Remember that Giendonese time is twice as fast as Earth time.) Now he was Giendonese sixteen and Earthling ten.

During a break in his class with Aslib and Sidney, his new "sparring" partner, Kakkhan asked Aslib, "Aslib-sensei, is there a new threat on Chikyuu-sei?"

Aslib's face feel while he looked up. "That's gotta look weird.) For a while there was nothing from him, then—

Aslib's soft voice, made husky by what he was going to say, said, "Yes, there is. I presume you know of it already to ask of it?"

Kakkhan nodded. A slightly mischievous grin split his face from ear to ear, but he kept his face down. He was grinning at the opportunity to meet Mirai Kakkhan again and to try and keep his identity from the Z-gang. He had actually come to miss all the questions that had been directed at him during those five days on Earth, the subtle ways that the Z-senshi had tried to get him to tell them his name. Of course, they had always failed, but it had been well worth the effort. Kakkhan had gotten to know them better, and they had actually gotten pieces of information out of Kakkhan about himself. All this he thought to himself.

Aslib and Sidney thought he was down for the count on that subject, but Kakkhan surprised them as his voice came out, "Yes I do know, courtesy of a certain person on Chikyuu-sei who was there during my stay. I didn't get acquainted and give away my name, don't worry. But I should be interesting to meet him again."

:~*~:

Tyeler yawned. There was Kakkhan. Instead of his usual cheerful grin, there was a pensive look on his face. He stood at the door with stomping, leaving it to Tyeler to open it for him. That was strange. Normally he was too impatient to just let Tyeler do it, stomping to make the door open "manually" before Tyeler could do it.

Tyeler opened the door and let him in. "Thanks, Tyeler. I was just about to wrench it open myself." Having said that, he came in and threw his books across the room.

That was more like Kakkhan. Kakkhan sprawled to the floor and sat Indian style. He put his forefingers and his thumbs in "O" rings and laid them on his knees. He sat up straight and closed his eyes. A thought drifted through Tyeler…

'Tyeler, don't worry about me. I'm going to start coma-like meditation right now to find out some things that I really need to know. So don't worry, this is deliberate.'

Without another thought or word, Kakkhan dropped like a stone into his subconscious.

INSIDE KAKKHAN'S HEAD

_Kakkhan woke up in silent overwhelming darkness. He was used to being in his own head by now; the lightless darkness around, the occasional lost blue sword or golden needle sparking through it to is Gatherer. Cobwebs littered the unused parts of Kakkhan's brain and mental ties from different people led in all directions; a bunch in particular leading north and northeast to a certain planet called Earth. Two ties led to Namek. Another bunch of mental links was squatting right behind him and pointing south and southwest to his Giendonese friends. Two even led to Tyeler and his wardrobe, his only family._

Kakkhan went around the Earthling ties and proceeded toward the cobwebs. He brushed them aside and stepped in. This was the unknown dimension that even his mind had, though that unexplored space was rapidly dwindling with meditation each day. Kakkhan slid amongst the cobwebs, amazingly not getting caught in them, or staying in one place for longer than a few seconds. To an outsider, if they were trying to watch his progress through the bowels of his mind, he would just have looked like a shadow slipping in and out of the mazes the spider webs thrust out.

Kakkhan paused. He had trod this place before, but only once, and this was going even beyond the territory he had trespassed before. Before him gleamed the promise of discovery, of adventure. Of course, Kakkhan knew better than to call what he was doing an adventure, but it was hard. He could already feel himself being drawn to what lay beyond his feet; it was calling.

He took a deep breath, making sure that the lifeline he had started throw out a time ago was still there behind him. it was. He faced forward again and pushed a cobweb out of his face. The cobwebs were slowly starting to shrink behind him as the "land" got familiar and no longer was unknown to its explorer.

Kakkhan happily poked about in his own mind for its secrets, storing away the information he gathered into his explored unconscious for later access to and moved on. Soon, he came across what he was really looking for; the information he had acquired from Xian about Saiyanlings and immortality. He looked deep inside it, finding the proceedings on he how to find out if he was an immortal Saiyanling. The information always yielded the exact proceedings on how or where to find something: one just had to look hard enough in the right places.

'Let's see here,' he thought to himself. The words pinged off in the mental amphitheater that his everyone's mind as if he had said them aloud; for all he knew, he had. for thinking is actually talking to oneself inside one's mind, wasn't it, and he was inside his own mind. That seemed sensible. 'Okay, I know now where I have to go in order to get the results I desire.'

The formal rite for storing information in one's unconscious passed up his throat and into the dark amphitheater surrounding him. The shade of information bowed and went on its way, one of its many spindly arms waving frantically as it left its master. Its master in question waved shortly back and walked on. He followed a seemingly random path through the now looming vines and undergrowth that cluttered his mind. He was actually following an overgrown path that his information had pointed out to him. He was still as silent, as graceful, and as shadowy as a cat prowling through its territory.

He followed the overgrown trail for a long time. Finally he arrived. He was at the gates of a huge hidden something_, one that had taken him to the core of his own mind to find. He stood before the enormous iron gates, contemplating what it would cost him to go further, then pushed. His Saiyan strength easily did what otherwise would have taken him minutes of grunting and heaving to do. The gates swung forward silently, making him back up in order not to get it in the face._

The atmosphere of the something_ he stood before was not that of mystery, but rather of wisdom abound and of cold friendliness to whomsoever dared to pass. It also reminded Kakkhan of the bulge of pure light encased in darkness, which he had left six years ago shrieking and howling at the loss of the thing most beloved to it: him._

Kakkhan started timidly forth, not at all like his usual self. The thing_s before him made him feel small and trivial. The things themselves evolved into a great City, one that still made him feel inconsequential, but at least It was better than the light that had so coldly acknowledged his [presence] at that gates. He stumbled forward, to stand still as the City zoomed up to and past him 'till a Tower emblazoned in sliver, crystal, and diamond glittering with light deigned to stop in front of him. either that theory, or Kakkhan was carried there. he thought it was more likely the latter, although he did not feel as if he was being carried._

The thought was of little relevance, for the event had been in the very recent past, and he was living in the now. The silvery crystalline diamond Tower was in front of him and he was being directed towards It. He took a small step forward, ten another, and another till he was striding as usual; then the was in the Tower. Steps spiraled away from him into oblivion. He supposed that he was to climb them. but in the shadows he saw something shifting. What, he didn't know, and that added to his feeling of pure anxiety, no, fear that he was experiencing. The hairs and the hackles raised on his neck as he heard a slithery voice.

'Go on up little one. I will keep the Guardian at bay, but you had best hurry, before I cannot hold It.'

Kakkhan turned around, his eyes wide, and rushed up the stairs at the fastest jog he could go at that was still casual. Hissing and cursing sounded after him, as if a fight was ensuing. When Kakkhan could no longer hear them, he speeded up to two steps at a time, then three. The steps swirled on and on before him, never seeming to end. Kakkhan was soon weary, (wow) convinced that what was happening to him was a test of sheer will and endurance by higher Powers or Gods that just happened to reside within his mind. That thought did not give Kakkhan a desirable image, so he pushed it away into the dark outside of the City. He continued on.

At last he arrived, panting. In the background, he could faintly hear screams of vile curses in several different languages, all of which he knew, unfortunately. He turned his head to see if he could make out what was going on. BIG no-no. Something smacked him in the stomach, something big and heavy, and It pinned him down. it seemed to be a hand, albeit a ver LARGE one. If the owner of the hand had wanted Kakkhan's attention, It certainly had it now. It wasn't often that Kakkhan was left without breath, but this was one of those times. He stared up at the huge giant thing that held him down; It returned the gaze. Kakkhan was the first to break under Its controlled gaze and looked away. It settled back, bringing Kakkhan with Its hand.

It set Kakkhan upon a seemingly solidified column of air and put the hand on the same column. The hand blended in with the column, returning to the source whence it came. Kakkhan thought that that was a good idea and dematerialized into the shadows too.

His molecules expanded apart quite willingly, fueled by the desire to get away from whatever was causing him fear. It certainly wasn't the giant, for It had radiated a certain calm and anticipation for something he couldn't help but reach for comfort to. No, the fear came from whatever had been skulking in the shadows when Kakkhan had first come into the Tower.

The fear source came prowling up the steps that Kakkhan had come up only a few minutes earlier. Kakkhan was startled to see that it was clearly a inu(1) akki(2). It fit the exact description Kakkhan had always though that dog demons looked like. It was naturally dog-like in appearance, with a greyhound's skinny humped streamlined body, and with the claws on the bottom of the pads enlarged. The head was totally unlike a dog's, however, with the rectangular circled head and the red-pupiled and –irised eyes boring through the very soul. The mouth was drawn over saber-toothed tiger-like fangs. The tail flicking at Its rear end was two-forked and whippy, certain to cause a lot of damage in a battle.

The dog demon bared the fangs again, but received no scream, no whimper, no any other sound of fear. Kakkhan was wholly grateful for the Kai-blessed gift of not being able to make a sound during dematerialization. It prevented him from having to stuff his fist into his mouth to fight the urge to shriek in fear. As it was, he simply waited. The inu akki looked around again and sniffed the air with Its overlarge nostrils. Kakkhan suspected that the air stank of his [presence], especially since this was his own mind. Speaking of it being his mind, what was a inu akki doing in here? And what were the City and the Tower and its godly inhabitants doing in the bowels of his head?

All this was thought as the akki continued Its search, ever circling to where Kakkhan was, in midair. Suddenly hot stinky breath fanned over Kakkhan's molecules; he held them still as the akki sniffed the air right in front of him. it seemed to be crinkling Its nose in disgust at the smell, as well as a inu akki could anyway. (A/n: hehe sounds like InuYasha in here doesn't it?)

The akki continued to sniff the air. Finally It retreated. A curse rent the atmosphere. The voice that uttered it was the same one that had uttered the other curses before. It paced around in large circles this way and that; sometimes growling, other times trying to rid Its nose of the stink of the [presence] of the powerful Saiyan-child lingering in the air. all the while, It kept an eyes out for the cat akki. For some reason that cat had deigned to guard the boy against It. It, a inu akki! True, the cat may be a feline akki, but canines were faster, stronger, and definitely more favorable.

Kakkhan stilled his thumping molecules and hoped that whatever the inu akki and the beings behind him were waiting for showed up soon. No sooner had he thought that than a scathing hiss tore the air. A small leopard-spotted neko akki yowled as It scrambled through the door and launched Itself at the dematerialized Kakkhan. Kakkhan tumbled together in a panic and went down as the akki landed on his reassembled body. The akki crouched on him, bearing all of Its weight on him as Its ears went back and It hissed once more.

The inu akki slinked into a corner Itself, Its two-forked tail folded between Its legs and Its ears were flat against Its skull. The red eyes were wide and held fear in them, striking fear into the hearts of whomever looked at the eyes themselves. It dissolved into the shadows, but not before taking notice of where the hated neko akki lurked.

For a long time, nothing happened. But Kakkhan's heart still pounded in his chest, and the neko akki above him didn't help matters any. Nor did the occasional whimpers from the dark corner the dog demon had chosen as Its sanctuary alleviate his fears. Kakkhan considered dematerializing in the shadows like the (Gods?) behind him, but a sidelong glance from the neko akki gave him no choice.

Then he heard a clip clopping. Clip clop clip clop clip clop clip. Clop clip clop clip clop clip clop clip clop clip clop clip clop. Clip. A final clop sounded, and Kakkhan saw what he would always have nightmares about ever after this journey. That is, if he survived it.

For what he saw before him was the dreaded Akki Rider, the Death Bringer, or as It was most commonly known as, the Grim Reaper.

Contrary to popular belief, the Grim Reaper was astride a horse. The horse may have been a demon too, but it was most definitely a uma. The uma akki snorted, Its nostrils flaring red. The two-forked whippy tail traditional of all demons lashed to and fro in anger, and the red eyes also customary of demons held a severe hatred of all life, and of the Grim Reaper Itself. The horse demon's coat was a fiery white, enough to make one cover their eyes from temporary blindness, not fear.

However, true to belief, the Grim Reaper sported a sickle, and the weapon certainly looked mean enough to wipe out hundreds of souls in one swipe. Kakkhan gulped and sat as still as he could under a very heavy two-forked tailed spotted mini-leopard cat akki.

The Grim Reaper stopped Its demon and took out Its sickle from Its waist. It put the sickle on the pommel of the saddle It was sitting in and glared around with calm pupiless eyes. Its gaze lingered on the shadow that neko akki was hissing at him over, and swung around to the corner the dog akki was whimpering from. It smiled at the complete fear the inu had for It, and at the defiance the cat was showing It. but then It focused on what was at hand; the testing of the so-called immortality the destined child had.

It looked around some more, then threw back Its head. It yelled, 'Where is the destined Saiyan-child I have been summoned for?'

Kakkhan's eyes widened. The leopard akki hissed even more savagely and leaned more weight onto Kakkhan. The thing behind Kakkhan said something for the first time since Kakkhan had arrived. Its voice was deep and rumbling, but It made Itself understood.

'The Saiyan-child is here, with the Akki of Cats guarding him. However, before you can test his immortality and ultimately his destiny, he will have to come out and state his terms. You will then state yours. The rules of engagement demand this, Yoki, and you know it.'

The Reaper Yoki had been getting ready to leap and take a swipe at Kakkhan as the God behind the boy Saiyan had been speaking. But now It stopped in loathing and glared at the God, but It backed away. The God coolly returned the glare and turned to Kakkhan. At least, It seemed to, Kakkhan couldn't exactly tell from the shadows. But that didn't matter, It was still addressing him.

'Young Saiyan-child, I am sorry you have to deal with this, especially at your age. But you must do this, for your destiny. You are coming to a crossroads in you life once again, and what road you decide to take will make all the difference in the multiple universes. So choose carefully, young immortal, for many fates will be sealed upon your decision.'

Kakkhan gulped and nodded. This was a lot of pressure, but Kakkhan was a Saiyan, he could take it. (Urgh, Vegeta's tape recording away in Kakkhan's head!) The God nodded and reached out Its hand again. setting him down, It withdrew back into the shadows, saying, 'Saiyan-child, name your terms. Then you, Yoki, shall name yours.'

Kakkhan gulped again. this kind of situation was completely alien to him, the working of fates by the Gods. He turned stiffly around to face the Grim Reaper. Working his throat, he nervously stated, 'My terms are that, uh, if I win, I get to get out of the place without any harm. I also request the freedom to roam within any dimension, any universe, any galaxy I wish. But, if I lose, well, everyone knows what happens when they lose against the Grim Reaper. I also demand that I am able to fight with my own hands as my weapons of my choice.'

The Grim Reaper smiled sanguinely, making scared goosebumps run up and down Kakkhan's arms and neck. 'I accept those terms, for I like a victim who fights.' Kakkhan's eyes widened while the Grim Reaper continued. 'If you lose and I win, I get to escort you personally to King Yemma himself. but if I lose, then you,' scoff here from Yoki, 'you get to be named Friend of all Demons and Legendary Lord. You also get a personal Guardian to watch over you where even your immortality is bound to fail, free of charge. Do you accept my terms?'

Kakkhan nodded strongly. 'I do. Now let's begin, shall we?' he hid his nervousness now that the upcoming battle was here and regained his cool impassive mask. The Grim Reaper leapt off Its uma akki and got ready. It slouched down over Its sickle while the uma akki rolled Its eyes and loped off to the opposite corner from the inu akki. Kakkhan got ready himself, sliding down into his defensive mode stance.

They stood there for countless eons. Then the Death Bringer attacked.

:~*~:

Kakkhan was down on the floor, sweating, bloody, Super Saiyan, but not defeated after ten minutes, forty-three milliseconds, and five nanoseconds fighting full out the Grim Reaper. The sickle had been thrown away earlier when It found that the weapon was almost ineffective on Kakkhan's mental body. The sickle either just bounced off of Kakkhan's skin or it passed through the no so strong mental holds the Saiyan-child had on certain areas. So the Grim Reaper had resorted to ordinary martial arts fighting, something Kakkhan was both glad of and despaired.

Kakkhan was glad the sickle was gone, it hurt when it passed through his body! But Yoki was also a good fighter, having forced Kakkhan to go low Super Saiyan in order to keep up. If Kakkhan fought It much longer, he would have to go higher in Super Saiyan power.

Thinking of ascending to high Super Saiyan, Kakkhan muttered, 'Why not? It'll certainly make the Reaper get caught off guard.' Defending himself, Kakkhan blocked a punch as the Reaper went after him again. carrying out that train of thought, Kakkhan stepped back and screamed.

The Reaper clapped Its hands over Its smarting ears as the rage and desperation was clearly expressed in a whole-hearted scream of power. The Reaper actually struggled to hold Itself up as the scream ended and powerful ki waves swept out from the medium height fighter in the center of the floor. More gold fire surrounded the maximum level Super Saiyan. His golden hair stuck up crazily, and his eyes were greener than before. They were filled with a determination to defeat his principal opponent.

Faster than sound, Kakkhan rushed forward and pummeled the Reaper. It was caught off guard and sent plummeting to the ground, miraculously not creating a crater. Kakkhan was right there to greet the Reaper. A combo of punches, kicks, and a sideswipe from Kakkhan's tail sent the Akki Rider airborne; a double handed downward punch deflected that. it was like Kakkhan was playing with a basketball, only with a akki as the ball. But then Yoki the Reaper recovered and punched Kakkhan in the gut, making Kakkhan spit blood.

Kakkhan and the Death Bringer sprang apart. They both stood in odd positions that were, at the time, comfortable for them, considering the state they were in. Yoki wiped Its arm across Its bloody mouth, regarding the Saiyan-child before It. The Saiyan-child was quite strong. Perhaps child_ was not an appropriate term for him anymore. But It had the feeling that this Saiyan Warrior was holding back , even through the Reaper was doing everything to defeat him._

Kakkhan was panting heavily and watching the Reaper with Its thoughts. He considered perhaps reading Its mind to see what was up, but he decided he would be cheating if he did so. He fathered himself for another attack and defend, utterly confused when the Reaper straightened up and said to him, 'I know you're holding back. I don't know why, but you're not fighting at full power. Your reasons are probably honorable, but I demand that you reveal your maximum and fight me at it.'

Kakkhan stuttered, 'H-how did you know that I wasn't fighting at max power? No matter, I don't power up unless I seriously need to, and right now I don't.'

Yoki growled. 'I'm not asking you t' power up. I'm telling_ you to. Now do it before I lose my patience!'_

'Whatever you say, Reaper, but remember, you asked for it.' Kakkhan brought his fists down by his side and bent forward over his knees. A sudden blast of power erupted from power, and even more golden radiance encompassed him. Kakkhan's hair grew longer, stiffer, and straight in the air. his eyes turned turquoise, and his biceps pumped up. His tail grew longer itself, and crowned his appearance by rising tall over Kakkhan's head. He ended up looking somewhat intimidating. Needless to say, Yoki was impressed.

'Well, well, well. I'm impressed. I can tell I'm going to have a hard time keeping up with this_. Well, how about it?'_

Kakkhan shrugged and went on the offensive. MUCH faster than lightning, Kakkhan thrashed the Akki Rider that It was a dog. Of course, the inu akki in the corner would not have appreciated that thought, hehe. Finally the Akki Rider released an attack that totally blew Kakkhan away, but it also made Yoki faint just from weakness.

The God in the shadows rang out in Its booming voice, 'Kakkhan the Saiyan Warrior is the winner!' Kakkhan, from his spot in the wall, grinned feebly. Slowly, he powered down, his hair growing shorter and blacker, his eyes getting darker, his tail growing back to normal, and his hidden ki dropping. Yoki woke up with a groan. Rubbing Its smarting back, not to mention that Its whole body was aching from Its fight with Kakkhan, It was in quite a lot of pain. Added to that, It was dirty, bloody, and sweaty. Ugh, It was going to have to have a real soak, one like the bathhouse had not seen for years. (Sounds a bit like a city girl, doncha think? Hehe)

Getting back to the main task, Yoki returned Its attention to Kakkhan. Kakkhan was currently trying to get a certain mini-leopard akki to stop licking his injures. Right now, the Saiyan looked like a true ten-year-old, not like the ageless adult mode he had been in during the fight. Yoki was surprised at the change. (Seems like Kakkhan is surprising a lot of people lately.)

Getting up, Yoki directed Kakkhan's attention to himself. The Saiyan's face cemented again but wasn't so impassive as before. Weariness clearly showed through, and a reluctance to get up and fight. Yoki smirked sanguinely.

'Don't worry, kid, I'm not going to demand a rematch. If I lose, I lose, and that's it. But I'm usually much less of a good loser. However, I have never met anyone with so much power like you possess, and so I have no reason to be a sore loser. Now, like I promised if I lost, you shall be a Friend of all Demons and be called the Legendary Lord. I can see by the actions of that neko akki that It would like to be your Guardian. And I would very much like it if you became my friend. you fight well, and I look forward to many good spars in the future.' Yoki and Kakkhan smirked at each other.

A rumble from the shadows flagged the notice of these two fighters, now friends. The God rewrapped the shadows around It so that Kakkhan and Yoki could see It. It was a giant, like Kakkhan had supposed before, and he wasn't surprised to feel like he was a dwarf compared to It.

It said, 'Kakkhan, Yoki has accepted your terms. Your terms were that if you won, you would be given the freedom to roam any dimension, any universe, any galaxy you wished. That has been granted unto you. You also demanded that you be let out of the place without harm. That is of no worry now. However, you have proven your immortality to be of the greater strength(3), possessing the shadow body level, so anything you wish of the Demon Gods shall be granted, but only if you take the time to travel to this dimension and ask for it before our own eyes. that will also not be a problem.

'Of the fate you will create once you choose your path. Do not worry about what will happen because of what you choose. Some things will happen no matter what you have chosen to do, that is natural. Some things good and bad will not be born because of your chosen path. Some things will be born because of your destiny. But no matter what you choose, choose wisely, and with your heart. I know that that advice has been given before, but it is true, and will always remain true, to the end of the eon you mortals and immortals call 'time'. Now say your good byes, for it is time for you to go.'

Kakkhan nodded. He said goodbye to Yoki, to the dog and horse demons, the former much friendlier than the latter, but the uma akki was certainly warmer to the greater immortal than before. He asked if the demons had names, and the God responded, "Yes. Your Guardian is Lotto. Yoki's akki is Yoko. The inu is InuYasha. Lotto will go will go with you back to your dimension, but It will remain invisible to everyone except you, other immortals, certain witches, and the Kais. Of course, Gods can see It, but that is of no consequence. And, before you go to Chikyuu-sei for your mission, I want you to ask your Saiyan Ki Arts teacher what the secret of SS4 and SS5 is. Now look, we're delaying you too long. Go on with you, and be careful.'

Kakkhan nodded, and turned to go out of the Tower. But the Tower raced by him, and the City too, just like before. Now he was at the gates again, with Lotto at his side. The boy and his akki looked back at the shining thing_ behind them that used to be the City. They looked at each other, and walked away._

After a while, Kakkhan and Lotto left the overgrown trail and followed the glowing lifeline Kakkhan had thrust out earlier in his meditation. They slid together in harmony, like the graceful flittering ghosts of shadows, like the things one sees out of the corner of one's eye, but when one turns one's head to look at them, they're gone. They dodged the cobwebs as if the sticky stuff were nothing. Finally they arrived at Kakkhan's unconscious.

It was here that Lotto and Kakkhan stopped. Kakkhan turned to the akki and asked, 'Will I see you in my rooms?'

The akki blinked and said, 'No Friend, you will not. I may only come to you when you are alone, or in desperate need. As you rooms are a kind of artificial intelligence, you are not alone in them. But I will see you later, don't worry.

Kakkhan smiled. His smile was not the full smile of happiness. It was more like a half-smile of sad understanding. Lotto yawned, Its white teeth and healthy pink gums showing. Kakkhan smiled for real this time and hugged the neko akki goodbye.

Then Kakkhan settled into his mind again, and prepared to face reality.

BACK OUTSIDE OF KAKKHAN'S HEAD

Kakkhan jolted out of his meditation. His head was spinning, so he took deep breaths to straighten himself out. Considering what he had just gone through, he was remarkably calm. He smiled half-heartedly at Lotto's promise and got up. Stretching his aching muscles, he went into his wardrobe and got an outfit. Stepping back out, he dressed in it.

While he was dressing, he told Tyeler all about what he had gone through.

Finished, Kakkhan stepped into the range of the mirror. Studying the black shirt with the cut off sleeves and the black pants he wore, he thought he looked good.

Over the years, as Kakkhan had gotten stronger, he was given a new armband to cope with his ki level. Finally his strength reached past the limit any armband could shield, so he had been given the rarest armband. This one was gold metal with a silver sheen to it, showing that he was strong enough to wear the strongest ki-damper, up 5 levels higher than the Ordinary Warrior was. To those who knew the Saiyan, the armband also signified that Kakkhan was capable of reaching Super Saiyan levels Three, Four, and Five.

Kakkhan had also been given a choice as to what would be his [presence] damper: a barbell to go on his tongue, or a nose screw. He chose the tongue barbell. Kakkhan was sedated while they pierced his tongue. The Saiyan was glad of that. After his help in Prince Vegeta's defeat, he had been given a silver piercing in his right ear cartilage to show his rank as one of the 3rd lower Elite Warrior class. As Kakkhan rose in strength and skill at sword handling, he rose through the ranks to Ultimate Elite Warrior Class. Two more silver earrings were shot through the cartilage in his right ear for his natural strength, and three in his left ear cartilage for his excellent swordsman's skills. These three piercings were gold.

A fourth earring was lodged in Kakkhan's lobe. It was of the same metal alloy that Kakkhan's armband was of. This last earring told everyone that Kakkhan was a skillful warrior overall, fighting naturally and fighting with a sword. All were to respect him.

All in all, with the earrings, Kakkhan's short spiky hair, the tongue barbell, his outfit, and his armband, Kakkhan looked bad. The wardrobe had started to acquire clothing for Kakkhan that was very punk and added to gangster look. (I was inspired by dragonscales' fic to write this little bit.)

Kakkhan finished his inspection and rubbed his face. After what he had been through to reveal the height of his immortality, any challenge on Earth was going to be a severe let down. Kakkhan raked his hand through his spikes and got ready to go back to Earth. He was going to defeat the Androids and not lose his control over himself. He knew that if he lost it now, millions of people, however strong they proclaimed themselves to be, were going to die. (Take that Hercule!) What was worse was the thought that his newfound friends on Earth would die along with them.

Tyeler, picking up on Kakkhan's thoughts, said, 'Kakkhan, you're a SS2, capable of going higher. You've passed that horrible test of immortality. How easy can it be to defeat those Androids 17 &amp; 18?'

Kakkhan sighed. "It's not that simple, Tyeler. I have to save Chikyuu-sei without raising questions, and that's going to be hard. To add to that, I'll have to hide my strengths and immortality from the Z-fighters. I also have to not get attached to anyone, not even the Z-fighters, on the planet. I hate that proposition, because no one on this planet besides you really understands me much anymore, except maybe the Z-senshi. Maybe, after we've defeated the Androids, I'll stay on Earth and not return to Giendon-sei."

'Kakkhan, if you do that, you'll have to take Serra and I with you.'

Kakkhan looked at Tyeler's green blinking computer screen face. "Serra, who's Serra?"

Tyeler groaned. 'I keep forgetting that you haven't asked the name of your wardrobe. Serra is her name.'

Kakkhan scratched the back of his head sheepishly; lots like Goku that way.

"Oh. I keep meaning to ask her, but I get distracted."

His wardrobe's fussy voice rang out OOC. 'Well excuse me! It's not like I don't care that you know my name!'

Kakkhan grinned for the first time in what seemed ages. Just then Balannon rushed through the door.

"Khan! Iyo told me that you're going to Chikyuu-sei to fight the Androids on there!"

Balannon stopped abruptly. His eyes grew wide at Kakkhan's appearance. Kakkhan spread his arms wide. He grinned at Balannon's awestruck face. How he could tell Balannon was awestruck, I haven't a clue.

"Yes, Bal, I am going to Chikyuu-sei. As for am I wearing this, yes I am? Like it?"

"Oh yeah man. It makes you look like someone not to be messed with, someone bad. Especially with the ranking earrings and your ki damper armband. Kakkhan, you look cool."

"Thanks. Well, guess this is goodbye for now."

Balannon's face fell. "Yeah, I guess so. But," his face bright again, "I'll see you later!"

"Yeah you will. Bye," Kakkhan yelled after Balannon as the latter raced back out of the room. Kakkhan dropped his cheery mask and returned to the task of brooding over his freshly found immortality. He wondered why he hadn't blurted out that he was immortal, but he found no answer, just that Balannon and the others didn't nearly know him as much as they used to , and he them.

Tyeler's voice whispered to him, 'Are you okay? I mean, after what you went through in your meditation, you're obviously not okay, but you're not hurtin' or anything?'

Kakkhan looked up and said, "I'm fine. Thanks, though. Well, I guess I'll have to capsulate you and Serra to take with me to Chikyuu-sei again. At least for the time being."

A dubious sight came into his head. Kakkhan shrugged. He looked around his room, then stepped out. Clicking a button on the outside, a sudden soundless explosion rocked the ship. Kakkhan shrugged and went to his martial arts dome.

He got Aslib's permission and capsulated the training dome. Asking the same thing of Janden, he got refused, but Janden did let Kakkhan capsulate all the stuff he needed to study. (As if I'd do that…)

While he was at Aslib's dome, Kakkhan asked his old teacher what the secret of the higher transformations were. Aslib replied to that with a thoughtful look on his face. "Hmm…I believe it lies in the relation between the tail and the moon, although I am not sure. I'll let you know when I am sure."

It gave Kakkhan pangs to know that there was a possibility he wouldn't be coming back. But as he went around collecting his things, he knew in his heart that he definitely _wasn't_ coming back.


	9. Twins' Welcome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior

****

**Kakkhan: Gi&gt;endonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, Giendon-sei, a few techniques, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

:~*~:

Chapter Nine: Twin's Welcome

:~*~:

First the Androids attacked Blue Star City. The horrible news escalated everywhere at once, crying that the whole population of Blue Star City, 18, 723 people, had been brutally destroyed in a single flash of light. Not long after that came the destruction of Green Star City. And so on.

Goku and the others landed near the newly blasted ruins of East Temple City. Bulma was there too, with her toddler son Trunks.

Goku said upon seeing her, "Bulma, what are you doing here?"

She brushed her aqua hair out of her eyes. "I wanted to see the Androids. I'm going home after I see them."

"But Bulma, you should be home now!"

"I said I'm going home after I see them! Now leave me alone."

Krillin shook his head in exasperation. Goku then looked down at Trunks. Smiling the famous Son Grin™, Goku started to play with the three-year-old prince. Then Yajirobe's plane buzzed by with the load of Senzu beans that the Z-senshi would obviously need. But as Yajirobe got out of there, his plane blew up!

"Yajirobe!" they yelled.

Piccolo said, "Yajirobe is alive, but how did that happen? We can sense no ki."

Yamcha, with a worried look on his face, told Bulma, "Bulma, maybe you'd better go home now."

Bulma, quivering against the rocks, agreed heartily. She gathered Trunks up and threw a capsule. Out came a plane; she helped Trunks climb in and then followed.

At that moment, an attractive young lady landed before the plane. She had blonde hair, light hazel eyes, an unemotional face, and a quirky mouth now curled into a savage smile. She wore a striped shirt, blue jeans, and a denim jacket over the shirt.

The woman said, "Leaving so soon? Let's have a little fun first." Her voice was cold and metallic, a tell tale sign of an Android.

The Z-senshi started. They hadn't even felt her arrive. But as the Android extended a hand, Krillin recovered and shot a ki beam at her. The blast sent her into the neighboring rock off guard, enabling Bulma to lift off without worries.

As the Z-senshi watched the plane ho, they heard another voice.

"You hurt 18! I'm going to get you for hurting her! YAAA!"

Krillin just barely avoided a ki beam directed at him. Meanwhile, the other Android landed near the rubble of the first one.

The new Android did not look at all like his companion. Except for the hairstyle, all they had in common were the facts that they had no energy signature, they were Androids, and they loved to play around with their opponents. The new stranger was black-haired and black-eyed. His hair, like 18's, was straight down, parted on the side, and down to the shoulders. He had a red bandana tied around his neck, a dark blue shirt on, jeans, and a cocky expression that totally matched his sneakers. Some girls might actually call him "cute". Huh.

A blonde head poked out of the rocks. It was followed by the rest of 18 as she climbed out of them. Joining her companion, they faced the Z-fighters. The man spoke first.

"My name is 17. 18 and I are Androids. We could destroy you with a single punch."

18 went next. "Our creator, Dr. Gero, not only created us, but he created four other Androids. Trouble is, we killed three."

"Even Dr. Gero. He was demanding of us loyalty that we didn't owe him, so we killed him."

Krillin, as well as Yamcha, was bug-eyed, but for more reasons than just the story these two were spinning out. Krillin was looking at first 18, then at 17. He looked longer at 18, but destroyed his secret fantasy when he looked at 17. (You know what I'm talking about, right? ;-)) Krillin hung his head, but managed not to let anyone notice his disappointment (or so he thought muahaha)

Goku asked in a dumbfounded voice, "What do you want from us?"

17 smirked, sending shivers down even Piccolo's spine. "We were created with the purpose to destroy you, Goku. After we kill you, we want to destroy this planet. But first, we want a challenge. It was quite boring to blow up those cities with no effort."

Goku gasped. "So it was you!" His outburst was followed closely by another. "You want a challenge? Then here's one! YAAAAH!"

A ki blast appeared out of nowhere. It charged straight at the duo, who only yawned. At the last split-second, 18 knocked it away like a rag doll. 17 had a slightly puzzled look on his face, like he couldn't quite figure something out. But the Z-senshi knew that voice, even though it had been three years since they last heard it.

"Gohan! Where are you?"

A figure shimmered out of the shadows in the opposite direction of the ki beams. Gohan was still the same as they remembered him, not a day older. His cobalt-spiked hair was still trying to escape his ponytail, one spike flying free, and his clothes were still the same. But one thing they noticed upon closer inspection were the four holes in Gohan's left ear and the three holes in his other ear. There was also a hard glint in his eyes not unlike that of the mysterious warrior that had beaten Cooler three years ago.

MKakkhan stared at 17 &amp; 18\. They were exactly as he remembered them in his own timeline. Well, except for the fact that they didn't know him. Next MKakkhan hunted for the trademark feeling of security and hidden [presence] that always surrounded him and his past self. He didn't find Kakkhan's.

'Oh well. Guess I'm early.'

No sooner he thought that than a huge flaring of hidden [presence] resounded in his head. Then he felt secure. MKakkhan grinned. The two Androids became confused. Why was this stranger smiling when there was nothing for him to smile about?

Mirai Kakkhan said to the Z-senshi, "Hi guys, we gonna take 'em, try to keep them from killing anyone?"

Goku nodded. Krillin raised his eyebrows. The grin Future Kakkhan gave him in return was knowing and slightly sad. Yamcha shrugged slightly. M. Kakkhan cocked an eyebrow. Looking around, M. Kakkhan spotted Piccolo. Smiling a bit at the disgruntled look on the Namekian's face, M. Kakkhan looked at the Androids.

Immediately his face shifted from amused to hard. The Z-senshi and the Androids slid into their fighting stances.

The Androids charged first. 17 went for MKakkhan and Goku, and 18 fought the rest. Goku and MKakkhan teamed up against 17. Goku fought valiantly in Super Saiyan form, but it was Mirai Kakkhan who finally beat 17 off, sending him into a crater-riddled ground where the droid lay, too injured to move. The father/future son duo smiled at each other and looked to the others. To their surprise, they saw that a Super Saiyan Vegeta had joined them and was now fighting 18. 18 was actually beating up the Saiyan prince pretty bad; it seemed that more than one Super Saiyan working together was needed to at least seriously injure an Android.

Of a sudden, 18 was sent zooming into the air. Their unnamed friend materialized out of the shimmering air to return Vegeta's glare. He returned his steely gaze to 18.

18 had gotten up and was now in a fighter's stance. 18's eyes were wid and she struggled to compose herself. She was trembling as she wondered who the newest warrior was. She hadn't even sensed him come and his punch had actually hurt!

Kakkhan, sensing the conflict within 18, straightened his shoulders. A ki blast shot from him to seemingly target 17, but it curved widely to land at 18's feet. The explosion dropped the rock from beneath 18 and she fell. Kakkhan sent another ki blast to keep her busy; then he turned back to the others.

"Hi."

:~*~:

Android 18 had been seen flying over the ruins of East Temple City, 17 slung over her shoulder. Goku, MKakkhan, Kakkhan, and the others gave chase. They followed to one of the streets at an intersection. When they went around a building, they found an ugly green monstrosity waiting for them.

It was green all over, except on the face, there it was a creamy white; freckles speckled its body from its head to its stinger to its three-toed feet. The stinger itself waved in the air. Two freakish-looking horns grew out diagonally from its head, giving the monstrous creature a Frieza-type look. Flesh covered the place were the mouth would have been on a Human, adding to the Hannibal effect.

It cocked its head at them, a blood lusty glint in its tiny eyes. Dead Human bodies were cluttered around it, as well as a brace of unconscious Androids. Waving its stinger at them, the new enemy plunged in into one of the human bodies. A bulge moved up the stinger and up its tail and into the sucker's body. More followed as the horrendous creature sucked the life energy from the Human girl.

Suddenly, the creature found itself without a stinger. A new person had arrived. He looked very much like a longhaired eleven-year-old version of Trunks. A sword quivered in his hand and there was an angry frown creasing the young face. It was quite disconcerting to see that expression on an eleven-year-old, not to mention a sword in those skillful hands.

MKakkhan smiled grimly. "Hello Trunks. Or in this case, Mirai Trunks."


	10. Into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, Giendon-sei, a few techniques, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

:~*~:

Chapter Ten: Into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber

Mirai Trunks straightened up in front of M. Kakkhan. The eleven-year-old future son of Vegeta flashed his friend and sensei a brief grin, then turned back to the green monster before them. He brandished his sword before him at the creature, which was currently gorging on the girl, having found another way to gain energy. The creature looked up at Mirai, grinned, and returned to its feast.

The monster then ate the Androids. As it sucked the energy out of them with its teeth before feasting on their bodies, it changed into another form.

Everyone gasped. This new form was now stronger than before. It was even more monstrous than the previous form, if that was even possible. Was this creature like Frieza, able to evolve into stronger forms and virtually impossible to defeat?

(Since I'm too lazy to write the description of Cell in his final form, just think of the bug android at the Cell Games.)

The monster opened its mouth. "I am Cell, and I am the perfect being!"

Mirai Trunks snorted. Cell cocked an eye at the demi-Saiyan prince.

"Oh you don't believe me. All right then, let me demonstrate for you!"

With that the fight began. Cell shot forward at a speed only both Kakkhans could see. Mirai, by some incredible instinct, managed to slice Cell again. Cell buffeted him aside. Krillin attacked next, surprising Cell temporarily with a Destructo Disk. But Cell struck away that attack. Krillin was taken down easily enough, leaving him on the ground. Cell was now attacked by Piccolo, Goku, and Yamcha as one.

Cell took a strike from Piccolo, a Kamehameha from Goku, and a Wolf Fang Fist courtesy of Yamcha. Kakkhan put one hand over the other in preparation for the Masenko Beam. When Cell recovered from the triple attack by P, G, &amp; Y, it was taken even more by surprise by two very powerful beams. One beam was pure light, from Kakkhan, and was termed the Masenko.

The other beam was gaseous and completely invisible. It was composed of the atmosphere, which cannot be seen. However, once the gaseous beam reached its designated target, the radiation in the airy blast comes into force, completely melting any part of the body it touches. If the beam had enough power in ki, it could be able to blast away the whole body. It was termed the Troposphere Blast, and was one of two beam attacks originated by Mirai Kakkhan. The younger Kakkhan stared at his future counterpart, amazed.

MKakkhan looked at Kakkhan and looked back. "What?" he asked.

Kakkhan shook his head. "I've been working on something like that for the past six months, and I think I'm getting close. But you've got it down pat."

MKakkhan grinned. "Well, yeah, I would think that I would, considering that I am your future self, Kakkhan. Of course I would have it down pat."

Kakkhan grinned good-naturedly. Then looking at Cell struggling up from the ground, both Kakkhans got ready again. Cell got on its feet. He patted the air where his arm was supposed to be, but didn't exactly find it. The Troposphere had done its work neatly; the fighters could see the metal muscles and wire tendon strings coming out of Cell's shoulder, but without blood.

Goku looked at MKakkhan and Kakkhan. He hadn't been able to make out most of their conversation, but what he had heard was certainly confusing. The past six months? Future selves? It was too confusing. He was going to have to ask them later. Right now they had Cell to deal with.

Cell emitted a low laugh. With a gut twisting movement, Cell's arm started to regenerate. The metal tendons in Cell's arm started to twist around themselves again, and veins popped out. Skin covered the muscles as they reformed, so the fighters were spared the horror of that. But they did wonder how Cell was able to regenerate. Luckily (or unluckily), Cell himself provided them with the answer.

"Hehehe. You're wondering how I regenerated, aren't you? Well I am not called Cell for just any reason. My creator Dr. Gero programmed me in this stage so that if anyone attacked me, I absorb their cells and am able to use my opponents' own moves against them. Ingenious, isn't it? since the green man had cells of regeneration, so am I able to regenerate. I can also perform the Destructo Disk, the Kamehameha Wave, and the Wolf Fang Fist, not to mention the Masenko Beam and the Troposphere Blast. Hehehe."

Vegeta, with a disdainful sniff at the green bug android 24 years from the future grinning before them, stepped up to the plate. MKakkhan, seeing him out of the corner of his eye, muttered out the side of his mouth, "Vegeta, whatever you do, don't use the Gallic Gun. Save that for later."

Vegeta glared at him, but didn't use the Gallic Gun. Instead he fired the strongest ki blast he could make without it being a special attack. Cell simply laughed and slapped it away. but Vegeta exercised a bit of control over it and made it come back to hit Cell in the back. That definitely caught Cell off guard. Vegeta smirked at MKakkhan, while MKakkhan simply rolled his eyes back. Kakkhan had to stifle a grin at the silly exchange.

Cell brushed himself off and regarded the Z-fighters. It was a long moment of inactivity before Cell finally said, "All right. I can see that some of you will actually be a worthy challenge with some more training. So I, being the perfect being I am, will give you ten days to train before I blow this dump of a planet. You, Goku, I want to fight you personally before you go. Meet me in a deserted area. You'll know where I am."

With that, Cell took off. Goku took off after him. MKakkhan reassured the others, getting unexpected help from Kakkhan, that Goku would be quite all right. So they left too, this time to make plans on how best to use the ten days of training left.

:~*~:

Goku arrived at Capsule Corps. he was bruised and sweaty, but otherwise in cheerfully solemn spirits. He met with the Z-gang, including MKakkhan and Kakkhan, and asked what the plan was.

He was told that they would use the Hyperbolic Time Chamber (a.k.a. Room of Spirit and Time), and that first Vegeta and Mirai Trunks would going to go, then Goku, MKakkhan, and "Warrior", then Piccolo, then Yamcha and Krillin, and lastly Tien and Chiaotzu. The days out of the Chamber would be spent training. (Riiiiiiiiight.)

:~*~:

A day passed. And Kakkhan now stood before the door leading into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. His tail twitched every so often to show he was still alive. The rest of him, however, stood stock-still and impassive, betraying no thoughts or emotions.

Goku paced around the round open room. He couldn't keep still as the thought of Cell. He circled around the domed room again, passing by the unmoving Kakkhan and the silent MKakkhan on the way.

MKakkhan was leaning against one of the columns with his eyes closed. His arms were crossed over his customary purple gi and blue wristbands. He seemed to be sleeping and his long black forelock floated in his eyes.

Then all three of them sensed it. MKakkhan opened his eyes, Kakkhan moved his head, and Goku stopped pacing. The door to the Room of Spirit and Time slowly and gratingly opened to show a very bloody Vegeta stepping out with an equally bloody eleven-year-old Trunks. They were dressed in dented Saiyan armor, evidence that these two Saiyan princes had been at it hard.

Whatever greeting the two Princes had been expecting, Vegeta and Mirai Trunks had been certain it was not this. For MKakkhan shook his head at all the dents in the armor and at the tears in the gi. Goku beamed the traditional Son Grin™ at them.

"Hey guys! How'd it go? Scratch that, I can see how it went."

Vegeta smirked. "Good Kakkarot. You can expect us to fight after Cell is beaten. And this time, I will be the winner!" He stalked away, leaving his future brat with the Son trio.

Mirai shook his blood-crusted head. "Please don't ask. It was very hard and very bruising to train with my father. I suggest you train hard Goku." Mirai sighed. "That's it. I'm off."

Mirai launched off in the general direction where Vegeta had gone. Now Kakkhan spoke.

"Well. If we're going to get any training done, we might as well start now."

MKakkhan nodded. He pushed himself off the pillar and followed the past into the fateful Room of Spirit and Time. Goku ran after them. He was eager to train after his little "test" against Cell, and wanted to find out exactly how strong both Kakkhan and Gohan really were.

Past the great door they strode, to find three beds already set up. Saiyan armor was ready and waiting to be put on. Goku looked around at the white walls with barely concealed eagerness. MKakkhan grinned when he saw his father.

Kakkhan smiled too, but for different reasons. He was reminded of his master Aslib's training dome and of the walls of the ship _Tiara_. Suddenly he was besieged with feelings of homesickness and of loneliness. He closed eyes and then opened them again. The emotions didn't go away, but they were under control for the moment.

He turned back to the others at Goku's voice saying, "Let's get started!" Kakkhan smiled to himself at the waves of eagerness that older Saiyan was radiating as the latter Grinned™ hugely.

Kakkhan smiled to himself again and said in an obviously amused voice, "Whatever you say, Goku."


	11. A Purchase of Destiny

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

:~*~:

Chapter Eleven: A Purchase of Destiny

:~*~:

A punch came out of nowhere. It hit the other fighter in the face. Goku pummeled back, ignoring the spreading bruise to his eye. MKakkhan shook his bright gold hair out of his eyes and fought gamely on. Goku hit his future son with a well-placed kick to the gut. MKakkhan retaliated with a growl and a roundhouse kick. The kick knocked Goku off his feet and crashing into the floor. Luckily the floor of the Room of Spirit and Time was Saiyan-proof, meaning that Goku didn't even make a dent in the metal-like substance.

The Saiyan got up and faced the serious face of his future son in a fighting stance. Goku prepped himself and lunged at MKakkhan, restarting up the fight once more.

Kakkhan, as usual, was meditating. He floated up and down on a spot far away from the noises of the fight going on. His black hair curled over his closed eyes, blowing up and down with Kakkhan's every breath. His muscular arms rested loosely on his folded legs and his green gi rustled softly. Every once in a while, Kakkhan's stomach would growl hopefully, but Kakkhan was too far-gone in meditation to take notice.

Then Kakkhan started to come to life. First it was his eyes, as the black orbs appeared and disappeared in a series of slow blinks. Then the head rolled, stretching out the kinks developed in his neck. Legs unbent and bent, arms moved, muscles stretched, and stomach groaned louder than ever. The Saiyan heard it for the first tie and patted the said organ.

"Sorry, stomach, we'll get you something to eat now."

His stomach rumbled again in agreement. Kakkhan worked out another cramp in his leg and made his way into the kitchen. He calmly picked out the closest things nearest him that accounted for food and closed the first refrigerator. Not even staggering under his Mt. Everest plate of food, Kakkhan set it on one of the many tables scattered around the kitchen. The young immortal pulled up a chair and dug in.

Kakkhan was about to go for thirds when Goku and MKakkhan trooped in. They were bloody and gory, but their attitude was very cheerful. Kakkhan assumed that the spar had gone well.

Goku went immediately to the refrigerators and filled two platters of food as high as Kakkhan's had been. This time the Saiyan _did_ stagger under the load, he not being as strong as Kakkhan (duh). MKakkhan glanced down at his past counterpart and his clearly once-filled plate.

"Starting without us Ka-chan?" MKakkhan instantly regretted his words. He was duly punished for his work by Kakkhan's black stare. Still, Mirai did get an answer for his trouble.

"With that naïve bottomless pit over there gobbling up everything, I see no reason why not." MKakkhan agreed and set about on the almost-impossible task of wrenching Goku from the refrigerators. Somehow MKakkhan succeeded and soon all three Saiyans had had their fill.

Kakkhan got up again and disappeared. To where, Goku knew not, nor did he care. It was time to fight.

:~*~:

  
__

Kakkhan strolled down the walkway to the City. The path he had discovered was rapidly clearing of the moss and vines that once covered it, thanks to Kakkhan's feet always treading down it. If the Lord kept it up, the cobbles would show soon.

He stepped past the gates of the City, where Lotto prowled up to Its protected. Kakkhan smiled at the neko as the City zoomed past both of them. The Village that lay all around the Tower halted before them suddenly. Kakkhan still didn't know if he was carried to his destination or if his destination came to him, but as long as he was there, it didn't matter.

Lotto leaped lightly onto Kakkhan's shoulders as they wandered throughout the High Market. They just looked in on things, enjoying each other's company while not in the midst of a strange situation.

Kakkhan bypassed one stall displaying highly priced jewelry fit for royalty. One item, however, was labeled as free. The Immortal raised an eyebrow at this stunning revelation, but he left the vicinity to check another vendor. The seller, a pale female, watched the boy with the many rings in his ears and the two-centimeter thick silver shimmering gold armband. From what she could discern, the armband was a ki-damper. But she couldn't tell what strength the damper was. Must be rare then. And what was rare, was priced high.

The seller's light coloured eyes lit up as the much-loaded boy came to her way again, pausing again at the sight of the_ necklace._

The _necklace, which so captured Kakkhan's attention, was not especially outstanding. It looked like an ordinary necklace, the kind that humans would buy. The necklace consisted of black leather string and pearly crystal pendant with the top and the bottom of the pendant tacked onto the string. It seemed harmless at first, but Kakkhan could detect a hidden darkness within the crystal that pulsed at him once, then faded. The crystal caught a stray beam of light and swept it over its own surface, illuminating each of its facets. The ray gone, the crystal sat there, ignoring pointedly the Immortal looking at it._

Kakkhan snapped from his trance and looked in the seller's direction. She who had been calling 'Sir?' for some time smiled in relief. Kakkhan overlooked her expression and asked her, Why is there a "free" tag on this necklace? How is it that no one has taken it yet?', pointing to the_ necklace._

She shivered slightly. 'I have had many customers ask me for the necklace, but there is only one person whom it will go to. That is the Legendary Lord, and even he will give the necklace to one in his altered past, where it will reside around the neck of the child of the darkness.' She added as an afterthought, 'I don't always talk like that.'

Kakkhan raised his eyebrows at the girl. Shaking his head, Kakkhan looked at the necklace again. The crystal stayed dull. The Saiyan regarded the necklace for some more time before he told the seller, 'I am the Legendary Lord.'

The seller was at first shocked, then pleased. She had had the necklace in her possession for only two days, but those days had been enough to creep her out. She wanted to get rid of the jewel item, never mind that it was free and would not bring her any profit. She just wanted to be rid of it and its prophecy.

'Really? Then the necklace goes to you.' The vendor of stall 2458764 picked up the necklace gingerly and carefully packed it and its pedestal into a small white gift box. She put the box top on the box and handed it to Kakkhan. Kakkhan bemusedly took the box, nodded to the relieved vendor, and walked away. not once had Kakkhan shown his surprise at the necklace's mystery; the Laniins had instilled too much composure into him for that.

But inside of his serene façade, Kakkhan was thinking furiously. Why is the necklace for me? Who in my "altered past" will get this? _He looked at the necklace's box, studying the white design with bold black running around the border._

Kakkhan knew whom this was for. Some necessary changes would have to be done, but those changes were needed in order for a fable long ago lost to be fulfilled once and for all.

Kakkhan looked up as Lotto came back from wherever It had gone. It purred, 'The Gods are waiting to see you. Shall we go?'

Kakkhan nodded. 'Yes, we shall. Perhaps They can answer a few questions about this necklace.'

Lotto purred again as the City zoomed past them in a warp of flashing light and distorting shapes.

The vendor stared agape as the young boy with many rings in his ears was warped away. The City only allowed that with high priority people, i.e. Angels or Immortals, for example. No mortal, not even a planet-saving hero, ever got that honor. So who could that boy be to have this done for him? An Immortal? He had felt too darkly charismatic to be an Angel. So…?

The vendor was left to wonder if the Legendary Lord was so self-titled, or if he had been bestowed such by a much higher authority than she.

:~*~:

Hours later, Kakkhan slammed back into his consciousness, stirring awake before anyone could touch him. And for a good reason too. Goku had been about to shake him for the fifth time. Now, however, he just sat back and smiled at 'Warrior'.

Kakkhan glared at Goku as he did his customary stretching routine. Wincing imperceptibly at the various aches and pains ensuing, Kakkhan mock-barked at Goku, "Well?"

Goku shrugged, stilling smiling. "Well, what?"

"Well, why were you shaking me?"

Goku looked surprised. "You felt me shake you?"

"Four times, Kakkarot."

Goku noticed with some unease the usage of his Saiyan name, but he abandoned it in favor of the situation at hand.

"Then why didn't you wake up the first time?" he asked scratching his head in confusion.

Kakkhan got up and said to him, "I was too deep into meditation to answer you." He turned around. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a stomach to feed" (Is Kakkhan acting a bit too much like a certain other Saiyan 'round here? What's his name again? Veggie? Veggetio? Vegitta? ?_?). An accompanying rumble cut into the air as the eleven-year-old Earthling-born Giendonese Saiyan sauntered into the kitchen.

Goku had no choice but to accept Kakkhan's explanation. Following, he too began to stuff himself.

Later again, when Kakkhan and the others prepared for bed, Kakkhan came across in his pocket a little white box with black border, which he remembered from eons ago. It took him a little while to remember what was even in the box. When he did, it was with an "oh _that_" kind of thought. Kakkhan smiled to himself as he tucked the box into a safe corner of his mattress. It was tucked in a way that he would be sure not to forget it in the morning.


	12. The Dawn of the Cell Games

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

:~*~:

Chapter Twelve: The Dawn of the Cell Games

:~*~:

Krillin paced back and forth, back and forth. Where were Gohan, Goku, and Warrior? It had been a day already. The human was impatient to get into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and get his training in; at the same time, he was worried about Gohan and Warrior. He wasn't worried about Goku—he would be fine—but more about Gohan and especially Warrior. Warrior just didn't look like he could handle a year of sparring. Krillin supposed it was that Warrior was young, as young as perhaps ten, eleven years old on Earth. Krillin would have to find out exactly how old Warrior was, not to mention his real name.

Oh, but where were they? Krillin took a sharp turn and went the other way, bypassing Yamcha, who sent him a sympathetic glance, and Piccolo, who gave him an annoyed glare. Krillin tried to stop pacing, but his feet were soon moving of their own accord back around the track already drilled into the tiles below.

His bald head snapped up as the door to the H.T.C. hissed open, slowly inching forward to reveal silently the three blonde and cracking powerful people within. One was tall, thickset, and muscular, another was tall and slenderly well built, while the last was the shortest of the rest, but in no way any less lithe than the others. Even through the battered Saiyan armor all three wore, Krillin and Yamcha could see how beneficial the year of training in the H.T.C. was. Piccolo, however, simply pushed off of the column with which he had been leaning against and walked into the H.T.C., having claimed the next year as his.

Krillin and Yamcha hurried up to Goku and "Gohan". "Warrior" managed to slip away and avoid their questions, launching off the end of the Lookout semi-dome before anyone could spot him. Dende, of course, caught the blurry action as Kakkhan left, but he chose not to mention it for whatever Kami of the Earth reason he may have had at the time.

Kakkhan landed at Capsule building, which he had detected by way of Vegeta and MTrunks' kis. He scooted away from it however, having only located Capsule in order to get the exact coordinates of where the Z-senshi normally collected.

3 1/2 miles away from Capsule, Kakkhan found a suitable place for his portable Giendonese room. It was merely an empty field, devoid of almost anything but dirt and some brave weeds and grasses toughing it out under the glaring sun, but it was good. Tyeler wouldn't look too out of place in here, either, seeing as it was an exact replica of the Son home before the Sons moved to Capsule. Everything was almost perfect.

Now just to set it up.

Kakkhan uncapsulated Tyeler and Sera into the field. They would be hidden by a clump of dead trees Kakkhan had chosen so strategically, and that were Kakkhan's purpose. He didn't care to announce his presence to the world, seeing as how it would be known all over at the Cell Games if, and only if, if and when Kakkhan fought Cell. The Giendonese believed fiercely in privacy, and he would do anything to preserve it to the last.

Next he let loose his training G-dome. It 'phloomphed' into existence right next to the main bedroom in Tyeler. Tyeler would program the G-dome to be adjacent to the bedroom so that Kakkhan could just go into the room directly from the bedroom and not go through four other rooms.

Then Kakkhan went into his home away from home and got a change of clothes from Serra. Dressed in his traditional colors of green over black, Kakkhan felt much more comfortable. That Saiyan armor had been more than a little constricting; he hadn't liked the feel of the spandex and the armor spandex clinging so tightly to his skin.

Kakkhan shook it off as Tyeler asked him, 'So Kakkhan, have you been watching the news for the past two days?'

Kakkhan shook his head. "No. I've been spending a year in a place with no Human-made TVs fighting for my life. The Hyperbolic Time Chamber is not exactly advanced in technology in Laniin terms, so I haven't exactly had the chance."

'Well, then, here you go.'

The wall next to Kakkhan warped and melted, finally bulging out into a wide screen with Cell's gruesome face on it. Kakkhan frowned as Cell smirked at him and said, "In ten days, I, the most perfect being ever created, will be hosting a tournament. All challengers are welcome. However, if no one manages to beat me, I will blow up the world! Hahahahahahah hahahahahahaha hahahahahahahaha!"

Cell's face blinked off, leaving a more than mad Kakkhan behind. Kakkhan had only felt this way once, when his planet Giendon had been attacked by Kjordians from the planet Kjord.

Then, as now, Kakkhan had felt a deep boiling rage that darkened his features and froze his stare. Anybody who looked upon the face of this young person would be shot through by his stone-cold Glare of Demise *.

Tyeler, sensing the abrupt change in her best friend's emotions, said hurriedly, 'Kakkhan? Do you want me to set up the G-dome so you can vent?'

Kakkhan replied coldly, "No, thanks. I'm going to take a walk." So saying, Kakkhan turned on his heel and stalked like an angry neko akki into the world beyond.

:~*~:

Kakkhan landed at his destination. Here he felt the metallic pinging of his senses that was Cell's disruption.

All humans, and anybody else alive, had a natural radiation of ki. Even the living organisms classified so arrogantly as "non-thinking", such as plants and animals, had ki. Alas, but metal was no such thing. And when metal was equipped to be sentient, like Cell, it disrupted all order of nature. So to a highly sensitive ki reader, Cell's non-ki was an uncomfortable thrumming in the head. That was what Kakkhan was feeling now.

Kakkhan located the source of the thrumming whizzing here and there. He was piling tiles upon each other and clearing away debris to make more room for his creation. Kakkhan watched Cell go back and forth between the rocks and his tiled platform. But Cell suddenly ceased his work and turned around. Kakkhan kept his ice-freezing stare on the bug android as he turned around. They locked gazes for ten full seconds before Kakkhan removed himself from the premises by zanzokening away.

Kakkhan then proceeded to just walk through the sights of his forsaken home, planet Earth. After all, the Saiyan's purpose for going to the Cell Games' site was done for the day. It would seem that he didn't really do anything, but he did. He had just threatened the most villainous enemy of the Z-senshi yet to come.

Cell had been unnerved by this silent blonde kid who had appeared out of nowhere. The glance Cell had received had stabbed into him, freezing his metal organs and sinking his metallic heart into his iron stomach. The desert had been frozen for what seemed millennia as the Android stared into the colder-than Frieza green orbs. Then the kid disappeared just as silently as he had come. Cell was left to ponder the foreboding clanging in his heart.

But then Cell re-glimpsed his tiles and smirked sanguinely once more. Ohh, this was going to be fun!

:~*~:

Kakkhan was staring into a river, brooding not about the Cell Games, but instead about home. He still wasn't exactly sure if he liked this. This being the Laniins shuffling him off to Earth whenever it was in danger. Kakkhan didn't mind saving Earth, but why exactly did he have to return immediately afterwards to Giendon? Kakkhan felt that he should be allowed to live his home planet _sometime_. It was not fair, to say the least.

What where the Laniins afraid of? That Kakkhan would like it so much on Earth that he would switch the order of his loyalties? From Giendon first and Earth second to Earth first and Giendon second? Kakkhan had heard that being done before. But Kakkhan had never considered it in terms of himself. Not until now anyway.

Kakkhan's reflections were interrupted by a scream. Bolting into action instantaneously, Kakkhan sped in the direction of the sound. He jumped over the river and followed the bank upstream.

In only a matter of seconds, he came across a Human girl in the river. She was thrashing about, making her go under. Ever time she went under, she struggled harder, thus heightening the difficulty of the situation. But for Kakkhan, it wasn't a problem to save her. He simply dove in and came out. But in his arms was a still fighting and soaked Human girl.

She was brown-haired with a reddish tinge in that brown. She had brown eyes. Those brown eyes held a knowledgeable twinkle in them, as if she knew something you didn't. She wore a yellow shirt and brown overalls (or is it green?), and she had an apple in her hand. Kakkhan deduced that she had fallen into the river while reaching for an apple. But other than that, this girl really wasn't that remarkable.

Kakkhan set her down and made sure she was okay. He knew that he ought to introduce himself, but he didn't comment on it. instead he disappeared, zanzokened, much like he had done to Cell. The girl was left alone to wonder how she had gotten out of the river, and who, _what_, had saved her.

:~*~:

Nine days passed, and the day of the Cell Games drew nigh.

:~*~:

Goku and Cell were fighting. Had been fighting for over forty-five minutes. They had already traded over 100 punches **, 93 kicks, 25 ki blasts, and more than several combos of the three offensive maneuvers. Many had been blocked or dodged, but there were hits. Goku so far had had 106 hits out of a possible 229, which isn't bad, but it ain't good either. Cell, surprisingly, hadn't hit top marks either. He had only 179 scored on Goku.

The taunts these two flung at each other are uncountable (Last count was 2,572.3, before the authoress got confused and completely lost track. The muse is currently counting, but she refuses to talk at this time. Ooh, another taunt!).

"I am the perfect being Goku! Give it up, you can't win!" Cell smirked down at him from atop his mountain. He was high enough above the humans cowering below him that they couldn't near his loud sinister voice without straining every millimeter of their eardrums. But the Z-senshi and the Saiyans had no problems.

Goku straightened up from his body imprint in another mountain and squinted at Cell. He suddenly Grinned™ at the bug android and said simply, "You're right. I give up."

The world stopped at simple statement. Every breath was being held, every face looked shocked, and every mind was grinding, trying to find an answer. But every mind found no relief, so every mouth opened to ask—

"Why?"

Only three people did not react this way. Goku, MKakkhan, and of course, who else but our dear, original, Kakkhan?

Cell quickly got over his own surprise and smirked at Goku. "Well, Goku, it seems you've come to your senses. But who will challenge me with you gone? No one else will have the courage."

Goku, still Grinning™ like a madman, chose not to answer right away. He reached, however, into his brown bag and withdrew a Senzu Bean. Dumfounding the Z-senshi even more out of their skins, Goku tossed the Bean to Cell. He then returned his bag to its rightful place.

The Saiyan suddenly pointed at a member of the Z-senshi who was distinctly apart from the main body.

"There's your challenger."

:~*~:

Kakkhan was startled, but he hid it as well as any time he was shocked. He didn't want to do this, but he really had no choice in the matter. After all, it was the world at stake, wasn't it?

But still, he should have known this would come.


	13. Golden Thunder

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

:~*~:

Chapter Thirteen: Golden Thunder

:~*~:

Cell looked up at Kakkhan and scoffed. "Him? He's no threat. Now give me a real challenge," he said to Goku.

He was put off guard by a strong voice saying, "Cell, do not underestimate me. There is more to me than meets the eye, _Android_." The last word dripped with scorn as the speaker moved into full view.

Cell took a blast to the past at the sight of the blond green-eyed boy glaring at him. Cell narrowed his eyes and said, "_You_," even as he smirked at him, arrogant as always.

To which Kakkhan responded with "Yes, me. You had better eat that Bean, Android. You'll need it, I think you'll find."

Cell simply shrugged and popped the little look-like-nothing Bean into his mouth. Instantly he was re-energized and recovered from his "brief" bout with Goku.

Goku stepped away and was forgotten as the strange boy with no ki descended from the heavens to the ground. Now Cell and Kakkhan were face-to-face, glare-to-glare, and ready to fight. One was fighting simply for a challenge. The other was fighting for the world of Earth and for his belief in goodness and honor. Both had a chance of winning.

It was dead silent in the desert. Even our humans were silent, knowing enough instinctively not to ruin the mood. Well, the Z-senshi wasn't quiet, but why pay attention to them? Oh, you do want to know what's up over there? OK!

:~*~:

"What's going on here? Why is that brat fighting Cell and that stupid clown isn't?" Vegeta bellowed.

MTrunks laughed nervously. But MKakkhan remained strong and didn't give into Vegeta's mood. Even if Vegeta was his prince.

"Vegeta, 'that brat' as you call him is the strongest member of this group. you may not think so, but he is. He's stronger even than Mirai Trunks or me. So quit your complaining and just watch for once!"

Vegeta was skin-shocked (2) into silence. He remained quiet even after he came back from his inferior's argument. Instead he simply "humphed" under his breath and turned to watch. He paid close attention to the brat below, trying to find something that the brat had that he didn't. It had to be that way in order for the brat to possess power enough to be the strongest here. Vegeta, of course, found no answer. None of the Z-senshi would out of Kakkhan.

Krillin looked up to MKakkhan and asked, "Are we in good hands with…Warrior…over there?" The bald ex-monk still had difficulty believing that that kid was actually named "Warrior". It just wasn't believable.

MKakkhan caught Krillin's last thought. He smiled to himself as he answered, "Yes. Warrior is a very good and strong fighter, like I said to Vegeta. I trust him, and you can too."

Krillin nodded. They turned with the others to watch the happenings. But Yamcha intervened with, "Hey, Gohan, do you, by any chance, know what the guy's real name is? I don't think that 'Warrior' quite fits at all."

The other senshi humans voiced their agreement. Those people being Krillin, Chiaotzu, and Tien. Tien was keeping one of his many eyes (only three LOL) on the desert and the other two on MKakkhan.

MKakkhan looked at all the people staring at him, hoping for an answer. His mouth twitched, but not so much that Tien saw it, he being the sharpest eyed of the quartet of humans.

"Nope, sorry. Warrior hasn't given into the questioning he was subjected to in the HTC either." MKakkhan had been present during those five days of interrogation 8Gi years ago. It was an ongoing joke with all of the friends.

The humans groaned. They shook their heads at the extraordinary stubbornness of their child savior.

The world watched as Kakkhan and Cell clashed together. Sonic booms raged throughout the desert as flashes of Cell's atrocious armor and Kakkhan's colorful gi glittered here, there, everywhere, and nowhere, all at once. Our humans watched confusedly for the action. They only managed to catch it when it clearly showed for more than three seconds, a rare few times in the greatest fight for Earth seen by mankind.

Cell was getting slightly worried. Fighting this one wasn't like fighting Goku. With Goku, Cell had been able to more than slightly control the fight. Here, the Android had absolutely no control. It was touch and go with this kid.

See, the problem was, this kid was a real fighter. He was a heckuva lot more controlled in his actions, meaning his moves were more precise, hurt more, and harder to bounce back from. It also meant Cell's opponent was very unpredictable and more dangerous. That scared Cell. A whole lot. If the Fates had meant for this day to be Cell's last, they could not have chosen a better person to execute the penance of his life.

Ah, but Cell fought on, despite this righteously depressing thoughts. If the Fates wanted him, they weren't getting him without a fight. No way in HFIL, Jose.

Kakkhan was also getting desperate. He had no idea what exactly his attacks were doing to Cell, but he knew what Cell's attacks were doing to him. they actually didn't hurt so much, but every attack that was successfully landed was wasting more time and giving Cell more opportunity to plan something that Kakkhan wouldn't be able to stop. The Fates were surely against Kakkhan.

Speak of the Devil. Cell threw Kakkhan away into the rocks. The Android threw a ki blast at the young warrior to keep him occupied. Kakkhan deflected it and scrambled nimbly out of the hole. He saw Cell shoot ki beams at the Z-senshi and at our humans. One Afro-haired person tried to dodge a ki beam and knocked into the rock wall behind him instead, making him lose consciousness.

Kakkhan smoldered with rage. He slammed into Cell's back with so much force he sent the Android careening far into the mountains. As a result, Cell was stunned just above the announcer and the photographer, Frank and Jesse, giving them both a great view of the bug Android.

Out in the center of nowhere, Cell's creation of tile, spit, and other stuff law broken and forgotten. Oops, miswrote. Cell crashed into it with a pained grunt. Specifically, onto one of the uprising pillars. It jutted through his stomach and plunged out at the top of his vertebrae. Cell was like an insect pinned on a stick.

Cell grunted again and pushed himself down. He looked quite funny with a spear-like pole coming into his stomach and out of the base of his head. However, neither Kakkhan nor Cell were amused.

Cell had barely popped the pole out of his stomach when he was backhanded straight into the ground this time. Kakkhan ran after and punched Cell deeper into the earth. He created a 2.1 earthquake on the Richter scale in the process, but who cares about a tiny earthquake?

Kakkhan pounded on Cell some more, hardly venting his anger. This episode was not quite the blood-boiling rage he'd felt ten days ago, but it was getting close. Very close. It was so close to bubbling over that Kakkhan could taste the power of the SS2 level. That unsettled the young warrior.

Kakkhan was immortal, yes, but were things that defeated even immortality. Only two of them could get to Kakkhan, and one of those two was too much power. Kakkhan could tentatively handle SS2, but he felt an embroiling power far beyond SS2 that called to him. That was the true reason for Kakkhan's fear of SS2. It was not the power SS2 contained, it was the power beyond.

But Cell was becoming too much for SS level to handle. It was almost time to reach higher.

Cell made one more move. He wanted to see just how far his mystery opponent could go in power. Cell knew that this was risky, but he did want to enjoy this fight, especially since it was going to be the last enjoyable one in a long time.

MTrunks watched in surprise as a ki javelin soared in the air to him. The eleven-year-old was frozen in his place. He couldn't know why, because he had faced plenty of these sneak attacks from the Androids in his own timeline. Why couldn't he move now?

MTrunks expected to feel sharp pain through his heart. Instead he just felt heat in that spot. The javelin had pierced through a heart all right. Only one that had stopped beating long ago.

MKakkhan looked down at his Mirai counterpart with a frown. MTrunks looked up at him and offered a rueful smile. MTrunks had frozen like this once before. He hadn't known the why, no did he now, and that was what he was telling MKakkhan.

MKakkhan nodded his understanding. The older Kakkhan version stepped back several steps and proceeded to pull the ki javelin out, much to the surprised horror of the other Z-senshi.

Kakkhan had watched in dismay as the javelin had skydived straight into MKakkhan's heart. He turned now to the Android that was the cause for this situation. The Android in question had another beam, which he tossed into the air.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Deep bronze fire raged around the lithe form of the 4' 8" Saiyan fighter who cried those two words. Cell was thrown back into the mountains once again by the sheer power being generated by this miraculous freak of nature standing before him.

Kakkhan stared at the bug android implanted firmly into the rocks, his hate and his rage of/at Cell escalating into the power level he had only felt—and survived—seven times. Who knew what was going to happen here?

Cell stared into the deadly blue-green orbs staring him straight in the eye. The Android was sure now that he was looking at face of Death.

Death, however, didn't really look all that different from the fighter he had been fighting before. Sure, the hair spikes were stiffer, longer, more bronze, and there were more electrical sparks playing all over his clothes, but so what? There was still the same face of neutral indifference, with definitely more spark in the blood-freezing eyes, and the kid still didn't talk that much—so what was the difference?

Cell knew in the next instant. It was only a flash of golden thunder, but Cell commenced the beating of his life in that next second. Kakkhan was here, and he most definitely was in control.


	14. Demise of Cell

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

:~*~:

Blah = untranslated words in Laniin

{**_Blah_**} = translated words from Laniin into Universal*

:~*~:

Chapter Fourteen: Demise of Cell

:~*~:

Cell was being battered to inches of his life. The Android could not believe the damage his body was taking in, but it just seemed to keep on coming. There was no end to this pain.

There was also no way to fight back. Cell's opponent was making definite sure of that. He took advantage of the fact that Cell was off guard and made sure that Cell never recovered it. Currently, Cell's body was serving as a punching bag swinging from almost hitting the ground to reaching a certain peak in midair. When that certain peak was reached, Cell was just punched back down to the ground again. It was a vicious cycle.

After another one of these seemingly "playful" encounters, Cell expected another hit in the back to launch him into midair. Instead he received the full attention of two very lethal boots to his face. He was sent shooting off to the left and sailing into the middle of some very obstructive mountains. The Android whipped through those mountains so fast their collapse seemed like a delayed reaction. Cell kept on going, finally coming to rest about 45 kilometers away from Kakkhan's last kick.

About those mountains, well, they didn't hinder the view of the person staring out from behind them. At last one could see the horizon and admire the rather dusty and far-reaching view Cell's desert could offer. If only the desert weren't so boring.

Kakkhan didn't have to wait long for Cell to make his comeback. As he had feared when he was in SS mode, Cell had been hatching a plan. The plan had been concocted supernaturally through all the pain Kakkhan had been doling out in plentiful numbers. Even when Cell could regenerate, the chance had not existed long as the Demise Glaring combatant opposite him had closed in again. It was another vicious cycle.

As for Cell's plan, the sinister Android came limping back up into the field of battle. He stopped in the middle of it to take his bearings and to squint up at Kakkhan. The "tin can", as Vegeta would later dub his kind, sized up his opponent appraisingly. Kakkhan returned his stare with one of his patented bone-chilling Glares, as he waited for something to happen.

Kakkhan got his answer in 5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

The whole world gasped as Cell laughed. The Android laughed his crazy head off as his body got larger and larger, fatter and more monstrous, and ultimately, uglier and uglier. Kakkhan raised a fine eyebrow at Cell's most gruesome tactic so far, although he did have to say that Cell's appearance _was_ an improvement. It finally matched what Kakkhan was certain was on the inside. Although…

Kakkhan's head snapped higher into Cell's eyes as the immortal realized just what the heck was going on. He could feel that MKakkhan knew it too. MKakkhan handled the information a bit better than his past counterpart, however. The _other_ immortal of the group sent his ki streaming into Earth's crust and spread it out to other areas. MKakkhan couldn't afford to spread out much, but when MTrunks joined him, the range both of these formidable enemies had broadened greatly. A larger area of the Earth was encompassed by this shield both were straining into the ground and a larger area of the Earth would survive.

The mirai pair strengthened the ki barriers with a little help from present-time Kakkhan. Kakkhan then turned his colder-than-ice gaze upon the Android, who was still laughing his barmy head off. (D to **Nooka**)

"Hahahahahahahah! Think you're so smart now, huh? I shall demonstrate to you now _exactly_ why I'm the perfect being in the universe! I shall blow myself up and take this world with me, then return and blow up millions of other planets to take! _This_ is why you should not have taken up my challenge, protectors of Earth, for I shall activate my self-destructive bomb and take you all with me! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahah!"

Kakkhan just rolled his eyes in impatience. He waited for the Android to pause to take a breath. When Cell did, he was quickly sobered down by Kakkhan's steely voice saying, "Oh shut up, Cell. There's no advantage to your self-destructive bomb. The only things you'll be blowing up today are a few ogres in HFIL. So give it up."

Cell was taken aback by Kakkhan's retort. "What do you mean? Aren't you afraid that I'll be taking your precious planet piece by piece? That is what I'm going to be doing, no matter your words. They are a pitiful way to distract me from my course; they will not work, for _I'm blowing up this planet right now!_"Cell started to laugh again, but Kakkhan ignored him. He was more interested in the figure walking out across the desert.

The figure was Goku. Kakkhan was confused as to why Kakkarot would leave the relative safety of the Z-senshi to risk it out here. Especially when he said he'd given up. What was going on here?

The Z-senshi was equally as confused. Yamcha called out to Goku, "Yo Goku! Where're you goin'?"

Goku paused, turned back, waved at Yamcha, and walked on. MKakkhan, though, had an idea of what Goku was going to do, and he didn't like it. MTrunks turned to ask his teacher and best friend what was going on, but he was quickly silenced by the black scowl on said person's face. MKakkhan _really_ didn't like the idea. But there was nothing he could do.

Goku walked, and walked, and walked, until he finally reached Cell's blown up physique. He placed one hand on Cell and two fingers on his forehead. It wasn't apparent to our humans what was going on, but to the Z-senshi, including Kakkhan, it was a horrifying bombshell.

A bombshell that was accompanied by a cry of "Oh no, you don't, Kakkarot!"

Kakkhan lunged forward, faster than lightning, and knocked Goku out of the way. Goku was startled into Instant Transmitting away from the field of danger and to who-knows-where while Kakkhan was stuck with the problem of Cell.

:~*~:

Kakkhan, while he was knocking Goku away, also punched into Cell's stomach. This, of course, caused a mega-gigantic explosion to erupt. Luckily, the insight of MKakkhan and MTrunks prevented any of Cell's explosion from damaging and reaching past any of Earth's crust. The surface, on the other hand, was not quite so lucky. The areas beyond the reach of the site of the Cell Games were unaffected, but the desert was scarred beyond belief. **

Smoke, dirt, huge and tiny bits of rock, cacti, and largish pieces of what appeared to be _green skin?, _blasted from the epicenter of the explosion. They whipped at/by/around/onto everything else. Everything else included the Z-senshi and our humans. A few of our humans couldn't hold on long enough and were caught up in the desert storm caused by the explosion. The desert storm carried them far and away from the Cell Games site. It is known not where they landed, but we'll get back to that in just a moment.

Piccolo was the first to recover from the massive eruption. He struck his cape down and stared furiously into the frothing smoke. His sharp black eyes stared desperately for any signs of life, but the smoke was too stubbornly opaque to yield them. The Namekian cursed irritably at the smoke and settled down to wait for it to clear. It was futile to search for the boy's ki, so all he could do was wait. As he was doing.

The rest of the Z-senshi slowly followed, MKakkhan and MTrunks leading the group in recovery. They stood silently atop their great monolith and braced themselves for the worst.

A roar startled them out of their desperate reverie. They searched frantically again in the smoke, but it was still too opaque. But sounds of renewed battle were heard within the haze that still possessed the land.

Suddenly Cell flew out of the smoking ruins. He turned to meet the furious gaze of Kakkhan and met his oncoming attack. The attack staggered Cell back, but Cell made up with another one of his own. However, Kakkhan flew in stupendously fast and punched him straight in the gut. The hit was so hard you could hear Kakkhan's fist grinding in between Cell's metal organs.

Kakkhan retracted his arms and flew behind the Android. He then proceeded to tap Cell lightly in the back of the head. Cell tilted forward, caught off balance, and crashed to the ground. There he spit up green sloshing blood up onto the ground, along with another thing.

Android 18.

Kakkhan flew down to Cell and lit into the Android with such speed and hard-hitting anger that Cell coughed up another thing: Android 17. Another thudding punch was rewarded with the human female that Cell had eaten before the Android twins. The total outcome of this forced regurgitation project was that poor Cell retracted in size and in power back to his original form.

The Z-senshi cheered as this happened, but Kakkhan was not so inclined. Cell had another trick up his sleeve, and Kakkhan did _not_ want to see it.

Flying up a bit higher, resulting in his back being directly in the faces of the Z-senshi, Kakkhan formed two blue ki beams in his hands. He linked the two with a fine ki thread that would not break until he told it to. He let them fly at Cell, the blue balls circling around themselves as gravity tried to claim first one ball, then the other. The warrior quickly drew back and slid into a familiar posture and called out familiar syllables.

Cell looked at the hovering ki pair and paled slightly. Whatever this one had up his sleeve, it was _not_ faring well for Cell. Cell swore to himself and thrashed the regeneration power-up through his body. He enlarged in power and size again, back to his perfect form. He managed to consummate this, the perfect form being natural to him enough that he could get to it without the addition of his fellow "tin cans". His confidence boosted once more, Cell turned with a quickly made Kamehameha Wave cupped in his hands.

Only to see a strange fusion of attacks be born. Blue swirling energy burst forth from his hands as Kakkhan's voice said the last syllable needed to form the Kamehameha. The two blue ki balls linked by a blue thread had been hanging in the air for a reason. Although the "Grinasheare Bomb" had not been intended to do this at its creation, Kakkhan had always been clever.

The K-wave crashed into the blue balls circling around each other and fueled the attack onwards. As they did, they fused with each other to create a huge twisting typhoon of blue pure energy. The new blast was actually quite reminiscent of Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon.

The K-wave/G-bomb combination thudded jarringly against Cell's Kamehameha. The beams strained against each other, one taking over the other, and vice versa, before they settled for swaying back and forth in the middle of things. The beams ballooned out into a slender oval about the size of two suburban houses stacked on top of each other. The ki within these beams were at tremendous levels already, but the owners kept on pouring it in.

Kakkhan felt his resolve falter under Cell's surprising resilience. Cell was actually proving to be a match for the immortal, something Kakkhan was not used to. However, it was hardly surprising, since Kakkhan hadn't reached for his maximum through the whole fight. Now, however, Kakkhan was realizing that he shouldn't be holding back anymore. It was time to let go.

"Oh, for the love of Kami." Kakkhan sighed. He sharpened his resolve once more and in so doing bellowed at Cell, **_Abli tuah Eiranos Giendonius miytu certi!_** Cell was shocked at the strength of the roar resounding in his already numb ears. Caught off guard by Kakkhan's roar, he staggered back a little bit, but that was all Kakkhan needed.

Drawing from his burnished aura and from reserves he had not known he had had, the immortal pumped more ki and strength into the G-Bomb/K-wave. He managed to get to the last of his rope of controlled power. The power of SS2 beyond this fragile end was raw and uncontrollable. Kakkhan had never gone so high in SS2 power before. It was only so high and uncontrollable-feeling to Kakkhan because Aslib and he hadn't had the chance to go this high before. Not that Kakkhan really cared now.

With a final cry of **_Kriah Chikyuu-sei!_** Kakkhan gathered what he could handle of that raw power and sent it streaming gingerly down his arms and out through his hands into his G-bomb/K-wave combo. The ball bulged with the added pressure, pressing down on Cell's last energy. Kakkhan gave another push, and the ball expanded again. Cell shrieked as Kakkhan's boiling energy snapped at his hands and arms. The Android's ki gave out and the G-wave screeched in despicable joy as its outlet was found. Kakkhan's beam roared into Cell's arms and rushed through him, the Grinasheare Bomb taking effect on Cell's outsides little by little as the added strength of the Kamehameha helped to scour away the insides of the metal Android.

Kakkhan refrained from crying out in relief as he finally felt Cell's non-ki leave his head. That buzzing had been quite annoying, and it was finally gone. Of course, there was the other buzzing, 18's, and out in the distance, 17's, but they were pleasant songs compared to Cell's non-ki.

The Grinasheare Wave, as Kakkhan was going to call it from then on, destroyed the remains of Cell's metal carcass. It tapered off as it went on, Kakkhan's strength and blessing leaving with it.

Kakkhan drifted down to Earth and stood there with his arms still stretched out in the K-wave posture. His breathing was heavy and shallow, but his eyes still burned with the fire of the high SS2 power. It disappeared slowly, until there was nothing left but empty exhaustion. That disappeared from view as well as Kakkhan regained a hold of himself and reverted back to his unreadable façade.

The immortal straightened up. His muscles protested vehemently with jolting pain, which Kakkhan ignored as best as he could. He could feel the kis of two of the inferior humans coming to him at speeds surprising for humans. They normally didn't move that fast, especially after a blast like Cell's self-destructive bomb.

Kakkhan turned to face them as they came hurrying up. It was the announcer and photographer pair, no doubt eager to interview the unknown savior who had just done away with the biggest threat to Earth. All in one day, too. The young warrior sighed and prepared himself for the final extension of a very long and tiring day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * DBZ's Universal language, to me, is not merely a convenient language. I believe it's the metaphoric equivalent of the English language, if not _the_ English language itself. If you have any offensive feelings about this, then simply ignore this. This is my way of thinking, and you are entitled to think differently. Please do not take your feelings out on me.
> 
> ** From the TV show _Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction_, only on the Sci-fi channel.


	15. Past Encounters of the First Kind

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

:~*~:

Blah = untranslated words in Laniin

{**_Blah_**} = translated words from Laniin into Universal

:~*~:

Chapter Fifteen: Past Encounters of the First Kind

:~*~:

Kakkhan waited patiently as the humans straggled up the cliff and over to his spot. He waited as the announcer and the photographer settled into their positions, then prepared to convince all of Earth that Cell was indeed gone.

Frank, the photographer, motioned to Jesse, his companion, that it was go time. Jesse faced the world's savior and asked the first question in the Dreaded Interrogation of the Cell Games,

"What's your name?"

The whole world clung to their TVs as Kakkhan took his time to answer. The immortal smiled a bit at the intense eagerness of the photographer and the announcer before he answered.

"You may call me the Giendonese Warrior."

Jesse raised his eyebrows. "Wow. That's a long name for a kid like you. How do you spell 'Gee-en-doh-ne-eze'?" Jesse tried to pronounce the word.

Kakkhan smiled again at the pitiful efforts of this human to pronounce his planet's name. "It's pronounced 'Gee-en-da-neez'. The final 'e' is silent and there is no special emphasis on the 'z' sound, like 'cheese'. As for spelling it, it's capital g…"

Jesse hurriedly took out a pen and pad and wrote a dashing "G" on it. With Kakkhan's guidance, Jesse wrote out "I-E-N-D-O-N-E-S-E" to join the "G" on the pad. Jesse finished writing the word and quickly asked another question.

"What was that light stuff you and Cell were using at the end? I thought it looked familiar, but I may be mistaken."

Kakkhan looked surprised a mite. "I don't know if it's familiar to you. But to answer your question, that information is classified."

Jesse groaned. "No! You gotta tell us!"

Kakkhan shook his head resolutely. "3 more questions, and then I'm leaving."

Jesse groaned again. "Oh c'mon! Surely you can stay for more than that!"

Kakkhan just looked at him. Jesse remembered his duties and hastily returned to them. "OK, OK. How were you, a mere boy, able to defeat Cell when two grown men, former champions of the World Martial Arts Tournament, couldn't?"

Kakkhan spared no breath for this question. "That is also confidential. 2 more."

Jesse shook his head. "What is a Giendonese, then?"

Kakkhan was amused, and that showed on his face. "I would answer the question, but I'm sure that my friends in that subject would be very displeased if I disclosed that. Sorry."

Jesse looked at Kakkhan with hooded eyelids. Kakkhan merely gestured for the last question. For an answer, Jesse said, "Fine. Have it your way." The announcer rolled his eyes good-naturedly and asked the final question, "What did you say to Cell before you blew him up? You did say something, right?"

Kakkhan smiled again, his mouth curving into a sarcastic smirk. He answered, a trifle louder than before, "I said **_Abli tuah Eiranos Giendonius Miytu certi_**. And then I said, **_Kriah Chikyu-sei_**. I cannot tell you what they mean, but perhaps you will be able to figure it out for yourselves."

Finished, the warrior turned around, took a few steps away from the humans, and launched off into the air. Frank followed the child hero with his camera as Kakkhan showed off for the world. But then Kakkhan smirked at them again and zoomed away, never to be seen again by the camera or at the Cell Games site by anybody looking for him there.

Frank sighed and trained the camera back on Jesse. Jesse said brightly, "And there goes our savior! The Giendonese Warrior, everyone! I pronounced that right, right? Oh well. I wonder what he said? Oh well again. This is Jesse Tokin, reporting live at the Cell Games site on ZTV."

:~*~:

At the Lookout, the Z-senshi found "Warrior" powered down and waiting for them. He had already gotten the special treatment from Dende. As the Z-fighters surrounded Kakkhan, the warrior sought out MKakkhan. The future counterpart caught his eye and gave him a thumbs-up, to which Kakkhan nodded. He tuned into Krillin's exclamation in time to hear, "So is Giendonese Warrior your full name?"

Kakkhan shook his head. "No. But that is what I am." Krillin brightened up. "So what is your name?"

Kakkhan realized the bind he'd put himself in and thought quickly for a cover up. Finally he came on a rather primitive but effective tactic to use. "I won't divulge my name until Kakkarot gets here."

A short while later there was a _poof _sound and Goku stood there grinning hugely. "Hi guys! I'm back!" He was stampeded by the Z-senshi except for Piccolo, Vegeta, the Kakkhan duo, and Mirai Trunks. Of course Dende stood by, as well as Popo-san, but they managed to get their greetings be heard. Goku was actually knocked to the ground, Chichi of all people hugging him fiercely around the neck.

Kakkhan watched them with amusement. He forgot to try to escape in the midst of the pandemonium, so he was caught like a bird in the eyes of a snake when the Z-senshi turned on him again. Realizing there was no way out, except by another of the intricate mysteries, Kakkhan surrendered.

Krillin led the group in asking the question again, "What's your real name? 'Warrior' is not a normal name to call someone, especially a Saiyan like you."

Kakkhan responded, "Yes, well, 'Kakkhan' isn't exactly a normal name to call someone either."

It was a moment before the Z-senshi reacted, but when they did, it was with smiles and laughs. "All right! We finally got his name!" Yamcha cried. Goku Grinned™, Krillin slapped Kakkhan on the shoulder, Yamcha laughed, Tien and Chiaotzu looked at Kakkhan in interest, while Kakkhan himself rolled his eyes. What was all the fuss about? Kakkhan by any other name was still Kakkhan. Hello?

Vegeta snorted at the actions of the kyojaki humans, while Piccolo remained nonplussed. He did, after all, know Kakkhan's name all along. It wasn't exactly a problem for him either. Dende and Popo-san stood by and simply watched the proceedings. As they usually do.

Then someone asked, "What was the meaning of what you said to Cell before you blew him up? I know _what_ you said, but I don't know what it means. It was in some sort of other language I didn't recognize."

Kakkhan turned to meet the gaze of Vegeta. It was intense and braced, but Kakkhan merely nodded. "I said, **_I am Kakkhan, Giendonese Saiyan warrior_**, Then I said, **_For planet Earth_**, and blew Cell up. That's all." Kakkhan was met with a little suspicion from Vegeta at the nonchalance of which the immortal answered, but Kakkhan ignored it.

It was some time before the Z-senshi regained the mind to summon the Dragonballs to revive the people Cell had killed. Then, at the personal altruistic wish of Krillin, Shenron removed the bombs from within the Androids 17 &amp; 18\. They also discovered that 18 was there on the Lookout with them, Krillin having brought her up with them. 18 boldly reprimanded the Z-senshi on thinking that 17 was her boyfriend, not her twin brother. She also deflated Krillin's hopes that she would…er…you know what I mean. But, it was all in a day's work for the Android.

The Z-senshi moved their celebration down to Capsule Corporations. This is where we find ourselves now.

Kakkhan was currently talking to Chichi about Gohan. Or rather, listening to Chichi about Gohan. "I'm sure that if you met my son Gohan, the two of you would get along very well. You actually remind me of him." Chichi said.

Kakkhan thought to himself, 'Well yeah, I mean, I _am_ your son Gohan. I'm just not willing to admit that yet.' But he listened politely to his biological mother as she went on.

"Oh… Goku, Daddy, and I actually waited a few months after Gohan's birth to name him. I was talking about Goku's grandfather Gohan and Goku pointed out that my baby smiled whenever I said Gohan, so it just became his name. So I guess you could say that Gohan chose his own name, in a way. I actually wanted to name him Winchester, but 'Gohan' seemed to be better liked. Goku suggested it really, but that's over now."

There was some silence from Chichi as she tried to keep herself composed. She wasn't quite over her first son's "death", but who would be? She was actually handling it better than some mothers in her caliber of emotional stress. Maybe Goten had something to do with that.

"I wish Gohan were here now," Chichi continued. "If only he could see that he has a younger brother and maybe play with him other than Trunks. Goten does need someone other than Trunks to play with constantly. Ah well. Maybe Gohan's watching right now from Other World. That would be nice."

Kakkhan watched his "mother" restrain herself. A fine thread of anger at the Laniins started to wrap around his heart. The anger was for them kidnapping him and ruining the hopes and dreams of a young mother for her child, however dubious they may or may not have been. The rightful opportunity for a child to grow in his or her natural household had been taken away from Chichi, Goku, and Kakkhan. It was here that Kakkhan, warrior no more of Giendon, vowed to keep this predicament from happening in his past lives. Kakkhan reckoned that if he stopped one kidnapping in one timeline, then the other timelines behind that one timeline would not behold the kidnapping.

Kakkhan went away from the conversation with renewed resolve to break off his life from Giendon and to make a new one elsewhere. Whether that new life be on Earth or somewhere new, it mattered not. What did matter was that the Laniins on Giendon paid their price.

Kakkhan chose a specific spot and opened a Warphole. It was time to get moving. Long past time.

:~*~:

They say that Time is a line. A river of red blaring digits and sun phases that carries us all down to our individual ends whether we want it to or not. All of us get on it at one point or another. Some people reach their destination sooner than others, but we all get off of it sooner or later. Even after someone gets off, Time flows on.

To Kakkhan, the scientists had it all wrong. Time was actually a dimension. One open to the interpretations of the teensy tiny mortals who abided by it. The very same mortals who thought there was an end to Time. The "end" of Time, however, is just merely the end of the lifespan of a particular race and/or their planet. There is no such thing as an "end" of Time.

As Time was a dimension, Kakkhan was free to travel through it. Of course, Kakkhan did need a specific location to go toward in order not to get lost forevermore in Time. So he used the first thing that had ever been taught to him: the Warphole. Kakkhan was planning on obstructing his past self's kidnapping. He was going to do so by intercepting Janden on his way to Earth or on Earth.

Kakkhan ambled in his Warphole tunnel through Time. He was in no rush to get through the familiar glowing darkness of his Warphole. He figured he'd meet Janden sometime, so why rush?

It was fortunate Kakkhan listened to his heart. If he had rushed through Time, Kakkhan would have ended up in a Time when Janden's parents were young. About forty-two years and six months in Giendonese time exactly before they would meet and conceive their two sons Janden and Rollin Jr.

Then of a sudden the immortal warrior felt his Warphole collide with another Warp. Kakkhan didn't speed up, but he did have to hold back from that. Kakkhan's Warphole was more stabilized with the end connected firmly to the other Warp.

Kakkhan soon arrived in the archway of his Warphole. He stood boldly in it; his profile outlined against the arch by the dancing sparks in both Warpholes.

Kakkhan felt Janden approach. The next thing of Janden Kakkhan heard. He heard the stamp of Janden's feet as they came down on the paved green darkness of his Warphole. Kakkhan then saw the gold skin, the three-taloned feet, the long legs and arms, the thirteen fingers. He saw Janden's face. The two eyes, gold-irised and red-pupiled. He saw the place were no nose resided, but instead a thin cleft for a mouth. He knew that inside that mouth was going to be tiny pointed teeth and enormous canines freaky-looking in comparison with his companions. Kakkhan saw it all.

He also saw Janden see him and the ki ball in the immortal's hand. He could practically hear Janden think, 'Who is this boy? How can he manipulate ki when he has none? How did he get in here anyway, if he does not know about Warpholes?'

In fact, Kakkhan _was_ hearing Janden think those thoughts. The Saiyan said coldly in response, {**_For your information, Janden, I am from Giendon. Do not be so foolish as to assume that a person who is not the carrier of a Warphole is not from Giendon. I am here,_**} Kakkhan added, {**_to terminate your mission to kidnap Son Gohan of Son Goku and Son Chichi of Chikyu-sei. This mission includes bringing Son Gohan to Giendon-sei to have his memory [cleaned] and to see that his loyalty to Chikyu is transferred to Giendon as his home planet. That is why I am here._**}

Janden looked stunned. Kakkhan smiled grimly, only a corner of his mouth lifting up as he had been taught. Janden stared as his fast mind starting putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

Kakkhan watched Janden figure it out. "It" being the mystery that was Kakkhan's appearance. However, the ki in the pint-sized fighter's hand was getting restive, so he spoke.

{**_I believe that new Giendonese children pick out new names for them to go by after their [cleaning]. That is correct, of course. I would like you to know mine. I am_**} **_Eiranos Jandelen,_** *{**_and it is my duty to end your life._**}**__**

Kakkhan brought the waiting orb and prepared to throw it at his young would-be mentor. Janden's eyes widened at the final pieces of the enigma, both direct and implied, and at the threat.

The Laniin stuttered, {**_But, but you can't kill me! If you do, this Warphole will collapse and you will die with me! I am also a highly influential member of the Giendonese Court! If you kill me, my Headmistress Nirvana will seek you out and destroy you! Do you want that fear of that for yourself?_**}

Kakkhan's eyes narrowed in contempt of the panicky Laniin. The warrior supposed it was because of the side effect of dread his immortality brought upon Janden, but still, Kakkhan had thought Janden was almost perfect. Seeing him like this made Kakkhan realize just how misplaced his idolization really was. This revelation served to increase the disdain Kakkhan already had.

{**_I am not afraid of Nirvana. _You_ are blind not to see what has been before your eyes this whole while,_**} Kakkhan spat. The Laniin delivery boy looked over his opponent's shoulder to see for the first time Kakkhan's waiting Warphole. The open astonishment that ensued on Janden's golden features lowered Kakkhan's opinion of his mentor's past self even further. Right smack on the ground, actually.

{**_How-how-how—_**} the Humanoid stammered. Kakkhan cut him off coldly with a Kakkhan-patented Glare of Demise™. {**_How nothing. You should have figured that out when I told you my name. But now it's my goodbye to you, Janden of Winian and Rollin Sr. of Giendon-sei._**}

Kakkhan unleashed the pent-up ki in his hand. He turned his head when the ball struck his mentor, coming across as Janden's past self's death was too dirty for Kakkhan to watch. In reality, Kakkhan didn't want to give away the fact that he still cared for his present-timeline mentor. Killing the past wasn't so big a deal as killing the present, but it still hurt. Kakkhan knew what he was doing in his present timeline by staying home from Giendon and what would be done because of that. The next time Kakkhan met the real Laniin, the meeting was going to result in a big battle of wills and brute strength, one that Kakkhan had no intention of losing.

Kakkhan stepped back farther into his own Warphole. He stood still and watched as Janden's Warphole fell away into space.

If there was one thing Kakkhan had gained from this whole encounter of Time, it was that he needed to work on controlling his immortality. After all, it wasn't exactly a good thing to have people feel safe/dread when/where it was not usual to feel those emotions, now was it?

The final piece of Janden's Warphole fell apart at last. Closing his eyes, Kakkhan aligned his Warphole to the path his past mentor's would have taken. His Warphole in place, the Legendary Lord walked on.

—

Two-year-old Gohan tossed restlessly to and fro on his newly acquired full bed. His parents had just gotten it yesterday, and he was still not comfortable with it. Gohan opened his eyes and his mouth to call for his mother, but paused. He had the uncanny feeling that something big, something momentous and life changing, should have happened right then, but didn't. Or maybe something had happened but it was not the thing that was preordained to happen. Yes, that felt more like it.

Gohan shrugged. He hopped off his bed and crept into his parents' bedroom. There he leapt onto their bed and snuggled in between his snoring father and sleepy mother. With a final squirm, Gohan fell asleep to the soothing rhythms of the two grownups on either side.

All three of the bed's occupants were unknowing of the precarious moment that had just bypassed, and of the dark paladin watching over them in the shadows of the night.


	16. Angels of Guidance

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

:~*~:

Chapter Fifteen: Angels of Guidance

:~*~:

An ebony-spiked Saiyan boy stole through the brooding shadows of an isolated forest. The Saiyan was obviously looking for something, as he paused every so often and looked this way and that. He ran off into the tree's towering roots again after one such incident.

The lithe shade the Saiyan made when moving at such inhuman speeds darted to the edge of the cut down tree range. It stilled at the first sight of the thing he had never before seen: the Son Capsule Home.

The shadow cocked its head calmly at the approach of Goku dragging a tree. It did not move a muscle as Goku passed. Nor did it sigh when Goku was out of sight. Its concerns were justified when the older Saiyan's ki stopped moving and his consciousness spread out in circles. The shadow held still as the waves of consciousness came at him in a storm surge.

Right before the waves would have broken around him, the shadow dashed from one tree to another one farther away from Goku. He knew that his movement had set off a subconscious alarm in Goku's mind, but by the time Kakkarot started again, he would already be gone.

The shadow waited for Goku to reorganize his thoughts. Just before Goku relocated him, he zipped from his tree to the one closest to the perimeter, back in again over Goku's head, and through the rest of the trees to the Son House.

The shadow paused again and waited for Goku to start moving again. Once Goku did, suspiciously, the shade kept out of Goku's guard. Although the shadow was much, much, much stronger than his companion was, Goku could still catch him off guard with an unseen ki blast. Then his whole cover would be blown.

The shadow ended up zooming from the trees to the Son household. No doubt to Goku the shadowy blur was very suspicious and bound to be dangerous. Well, he was correct.

Goku had been feeling safe. Of course there was no reason why he shouldn't, but he just had been feeling that. He still felt that way now, but the Saiyan had been wondering why. He had stopped the first time to try and get a sense of why. Spreading out his consciousness, it had been some time before something moved. It was too fast for Goku to make out, other than something that was there one moment and gone the next.

Goku still felt safe, but now it was illogical to with that thing in the trees. Goku knew that he should be alert and ready for anything, practically in a fighting stance. But instead he was merely suspicious of the shadow.

Goku tried again. Again the thing moved, but this time it went right over his head before speeding off who-knew-where. But Goku was beginning to realize that the shadow's actions were deliberate. It was leading him to his own house.

Surprisingly, Goku didn't feel his heart jump into his throat, nor did he start running to save his family. He still didn't feel like he was in danger. He just moved normally, but this time looking everywhere for the thing. It seemed like the object knew it was being watched for, because it didn't appear again.

Goku had then emerged from the trees and seen an all-too-brief glance of his target flashing behind his home. Goku was really puzzled now. Was the object an angel to guide him home when he already knew the way? Or was it something else? What then?

Goku shrugged. All this thinking was hurting his head. He then remembered the tree that he had cut down. He turned to it and proceeded to cut the log into smaller logs to serve as firewood for the coming winter.

The shadow seized the chance to go into the house. He ducked around Chichi and dodged the Ox King in the hallway. He locked on the trembling ki of the unnamed-so-far baby Gohan and crept into the room. He tucked something into the blankets of Gohan's crib and crept out by way of the window.

He felt Goku's terribly weak ki come into the building. Good. From what Chichi had told him, Goku had suggested the name that Gohan had chosen for himself.

The shadow figured that the person in his past to whom the demon necklace belonged to was someone not in his direct past, but in his indirect one, the one MKakkhan and MTrunks had traveled to. As the phantom had traveled back even further from the kidnapping to Gohan's naming, he had been struck with a sobering thought. That thought had probably been sent to him by the Gods of Time &amp; Destiny of the Past. What if the necklace belonged to not a person Gohan met, but Gohan himself?

After all, Gohan was the phantom Saiyan's past self. And the shadow had a destiny, so Gohan could have one as well. But what was the point of giving the necklace to Gohan? The phantom didn't know, but he was sure to find out.

He stood by again as Chichi, Goku, and Ox King filed into Gohan's room. They stood over his crib and started talking back and forth about the baby. Chichi was yelling something about "Winchester" (at which the shadow had to stifle a laugh). The baby in the crib smiled, but not at the name.

No, baby Gohan was smiling at the extravagant face a certain other Saiyan was making. Goku, encouraged by the positive feedback, pulled another expression. The baby smiled wider as his tiny fists reached up and waved in the air. Goku Grinned™ in surprise as his son did this. (A/n: Kudos to anyone who correctly guesses what Goku's thinking here.)

Another thought jumped across the abyss of his mind. 'What will his name be? We can't just call him "baby" all the time.' An unfamiliar voice replied, 'Gohan.'

Goku, understandably, was startled. 'Who are you?' asked he to what he thought was another side of himself.

He got no answer to this one. Goku asked again, 'Who are you? I know you're there.'

Nada. Goku shrugged and tuned into Chichi's ranting just in time to hear the Ox King interrupt her to calm her down. Goku watched in amusement as the King's plan backfired and Chichi turned on him.

A lull came in the conversation and Goku said, "Hey, what about Gohan?" The bristling Chichi looked up sharply, giving her father ample time to recover from his cowering stance as she walked away from him.

Chichi had one of her famous mood swings from Angry &amp; Terrifying Chichi to Thoughtful Chichi. A much more desirable state to have Chichi in.

"Gohan? Hmm…How did you come up with that name?"

Goku shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it's after Grandpa Gohan? I mean, it just popped into my head!"

Chichi had to catch back a laugh at that. She managed to, but only barely. She helped herself by turning away. She happened to glance at her baby, who was smiling, no, Grinning™ and clapping his hands sloppily. Chichi's eyes grew a bit as she watched him gurgle and drool happily at the name Gohan.

The shadow, on the top of the circular window, listened with his sharp Saiyan hearing. He could hear the footsteps of Chichi's feet as she made her way to Gohan's crib. He could hear his past-self cooing happily as she apparently looked at him. The shade heard Chichi say nonsense words to Gohan, and then three pairs of receding footsteps as they all went out the room.

The shade knew then that it was his time to go. He pushed off the window and loped off into the threes, still maintaining a sense that he was just a blur.

But Goku, as he looked back, saw the blur again. He turned fully and looked out the window at where he had seen the blur. He smiled contently as a great mystery ended as quickly as it had started. Goku turned his head to hear Chichi's call from the kitchen and replied, "Just a minute!"

The Saiyan returned to the window again and called softly, "Thanks, angel, for helping us name our baby."


	17. Cries of the Past

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, the unfamiliar languages, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

::

Blah **_= _**untranslated words in Laniin

[**_Blah_**] = translated words in Laniin

::

Chapter Seventeen: Cries of the Past

::

Kakkhan returned to his own timeline in time to alleviate the worries of the Z-senshi just as they were beginning to form. The fighters and non-fighters greeted him enthusiastically, never mind that they knew almost nothing of him. After all, he _was_ on their side, right? And a right powerful warrior too! The Kais were indeed smiling upon the Z-senshi.

MKakkhan and MTrunks told the group that they were leaving for their timeline the next day, so preparations were being made for the farewell party. Through the midst of it all, the women were busy doing their jobs and the men were feeling useless. It was this ennui that prompted the fighting Z-senshi to turn to Kakkhan and badger him with questions. Some of these questions were natural, but some wouldn't have been asked under different circumstances.

Yamcha asked the first question. "Kakkhan, what was the attack that you used to beat Cell? I recognized the Kamehameha Wave, but you used another attack with that. What was that?"

Kakkhan smirked slightly before answering, as if proud of his creation. "The attack I formed before combining it with your Kamehameha Wave was the Grinasheare Bomb. It was created to be an energy bomb to blow up enemies or any other obstacles. I knew that Cell would just recover from the Grinasheare, so I decided to combine it with the Kamehameha. I was not sure if it was going to work, but I am glad it did."

The others nodded in vigorous agreement. Krillin posed the next three questions. "So that was your first time using that attack in combination? Or was it your first time using the Kamehameha as well? How _do_ you know the Kamehameha, anyway?"

Kakkhan chose to answer the third question first. "Kakka—Goku taught the Kamehameha to me, in return for the Instant Transmission technique. And yes, it was my first time using the attack in combination. I'm just glad it didn't backfire on me like the Laurenarena Ring." Winces accompanied the vigorous nods this time, and Kakkhan continued.

"It was not my first time using the Kamehameha Wave though. I used it against Goku many times in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber." Goku Grinned™ in verification of the statement, and it continued. Yamcha, however, made the mistake of touching upon Kakkhan's past without careful consideration.

"Hey, Kakkhan. It sounds like you led a pretty good life before us. Why'd you come here?

Silence greeted Yamcha's statement as well as a Glare of Demise™ that knocked Yamcha's knees together. Kakkhan, in an extremely cold voice, said, "I will not answer that question. I will ask you to not comment on my life and how good or bad it was. I will also not tolerate questions about why I came here or why I have not left yet. I will not answer them, nor will I ever forgive the person who asks them without consideration. Now, let's move on."

They did. Hours later, a grand party was thrown for the Future Heroes, and none but Mirai Kakkhan noticed as a shadow slipped across the wall and out of the house. Kakkhan was nowhere to be seen five minutes into the soiree, but after Yamcha's disgrace, it was small wonder why.

::

Kakkhan walked throughout Gohan's life. He had no idea what would have gone on in his life had he remained Gohan. He was immortal, so he had forever to contemplate his life as Gohan.

Kakkhan saw Gohan kidnapped by Radditz. He saw Gohan's training with Piccolo in the wild for a year. He saw Vegeta and Nappa arrive. He remembered what he knew and compared the different lives. He saw Gohan and Krillin travel to Namek with Bulma. He saw Goku defeat Frieza. He saw the planet of Namek blow up, and SS Goku's struggle to get off of the dying planetoid. He oversaw the return of Gohan and Krillin to Earth and the fight there to keep Garlic Jr. from overtaking the Earth. He saw the year of emptiness without Goku, and then Goku's return. He saw the doom of Bojack and of Cooler as each fought the Z-senshi, and as each lost their lives.

Kakkhan witnessed the fall of Goku to the rare heart virus. He knew now the full extent of the world of Mirai Kakkhan and Mirai Trunks. Kakkhan did not step in to prevent the Androids' coming, for this was all part of his original life. The immortal dimension traveler also beheld the vicious Dark Androids and the destruction and woe they brought with them. This is where we step in ourselves, four years after Goku's death, four years of wanton Dark Android destruction.

Kakkhan stood between two miraculously intact buildings. He had kept tabs on the Androids through the way the kis of the innocent citizens kept winking out all around him and their laughs as each ki group died. Kakkhan didn't blink, didn't move, didn't falter as the ki blew away. You could almost say he didn't care. But Kakkhan did care. He just hid it behind his solid emotionless shield. (Hmmm sounds like Veggie-chan.)

The Dark Androids floated in front of two intact buildings juicily full of ki. But it just seemed to them like there was a person missing or something.

Dark 17 drifted around to the sides where the edifices faced each other. There. A boy with black spiked hair and an emotionless expression stood in the alley. Dark 17 smirked and drifted back to Dark 18.

He yelled to her, "Hey 18. I found something. It's this boy just standing there in the alley."

Dark 18 smiled sanguinely. "Well, well, well. It seems like we'll be wiping out one more person next to this lot." The Dark twins smirked at each other gleefully. They formed ki in their hands and flew to the opposite side of the building on Kakkhan's right. Kakkhan watched them go and prepared his ki shield for impact.

The deadly spheres came without warning, followed by the chortles of the Dark Gemini anticipating the death of so many. Dark 18's ki ripped through the first building and through the other building, narrowly missing Kakkhan's shield. More ki blinked out as Dark 17's ki orb followed. It was at more of an angle than his sister's, designed specifically to land on Kakkhan and kill him too. Bad, bad, baaaaaaaad choice.

Dark 17's ki ball fell down and supposedly destroyed the boy. But the Dark Androids didn't feel any ki wink out. Weird, that wasn't supposed to happen. They gravitated down to the top of the rubble and stared.

Instead of hitting Kakkhan, the ball had bounced off his shield twice and struck the construction on Kakkhan's left, obliterating the lone survivor in its ruins. But now Kakkhan was angry, even if his face didn't show it.

The Dark Androids watched the boy turn and face them. Too late they felt the effects of the deep dread of the unstoppable warrior staring straight at them. They buckled down under the dread, managing to keep standing, but even that was wobbly in nature.

Kakkhan stared at them some more with his Glare of Demise (No, not a Death Glare™, that's Vegeta's signature. A Glare of Demise is different.) before walking off. He jumped onto the top of another building, abandoned this time, and watched the Z-senshi approach with eleven-year-old Gohan in their midst. The immortal stood on the corner of his abandoned building, one foot on each one the upraised parts of the roof that rises up from the floor in order to keep people from falling off. In other words, Kakkhan stood on the upraised parts with the corner jutting out from between his feet.

The Dark Androids also sensed the arrival of their "playmates". Vowing to take care of the other person later, the Dark twins turned to their first priority with something akin to relief.

Kakkhan watched the Z-senshi battle the Dark Androids. He saw that they had almost no chance of winning, if they even did. He thought that the Z-senshi knew this too, but they battled on anyway. He admired their courage, however hopeless it may have been.

The Dark Androids slew Vegeta and moved on to Krillin. They murdered him too, causing Gohan to power up to Super Saiyan in his rage. Kakkhan could tell this was the first time that Gohan had gone up to SS from the way that it took a long time to fully achieve that power level and its features.

Gohan and the Dark Androids battled. While it was true that Dark 18 and Dark 17 had a bit more of a difficult time keeping up, they still had the advantage over him. Yamcha, Piccolo, Tien &amp; Chiaotzu toned down their disadvantage by distracting the Dark Androids every chance they got. But by the time the Dark Androids decided to finish for the day, Gohan was badly injured and could barely walk, much less punch or kick.

Kakkhan grimaced. MKakkhan had had to go through seven years of this without returning to Giendon once. He could definitely relate to that now. Kakkhan shook his head. He felt really sorry for his future self. Speaking of his future self, Kakkhan wondered how MKakkhan and MTrunks were doing. Was their world rebuilt? It depended on the year that Kakkhan traveled to in their dimension. Ah but this wasn't the future. This was the past, for him anyway, and it was his duty to watch it through.

Gohan passed out and was dragged to Capsule. Bulma hooked him up to a heart monitor and did everything that she was supposed to do to make him comfortable and ready for the next time that the Dark Androids attacked. Krillin and Vegeta were buried appropriately. Bulma wept for her mate and one of her best friends all night.

That night Gohan was visited in his dreams by an esoteric person who looked exactly like him but was not he. This Gohan wore four earrings in his left ear cartilage that were gold (the one in his lobe was silver too), and three in his right ear cartilage that were silver. The stranger (A/n: Again Kakkhan is a stranger gaah) was wearing an armband of silver and gold, and when he talked, Gohan glimpsed a tongue barbell of silver. The enigmatic was holding a necklace that looked vaguely familiar, with the ends of its black leather ready to be tied together. A crystal pendant glittered at him, an energy radiating from the necklace that told of hiding and of concealment, much like the person who held the jewelry.

The Gohan look-alike said in a soothing voice, 'Hello Gohan. I know you just want to sleep now to heal up, but this may help you. I hold in my hand a ki damper necklace. It hides your ki when you put it around your neck.' The person said to his doppelganger. Seeing that Gohan was still regarding him with suspicion, Kakkhan simply held out the necklace for Gohan to take.

Gohan mistrustfully looked at the vaguely familiar necklace. It seemed to be harmless, but then again so did the Dark Androids, somewhat. And what about the person holding it? Was he here for something he wanted from Gohan? Gohan narrowed his eyes.

'Is that necklace for making me a slave to your orders?' Gohan's fingers were itching to grab the necklace for some bizarre reason. Gohan told them to behave and waited for his double to respond.

Kakkhan shook his head. 'No it is not. I'm sorry you feel that way about me. I don't mean any harm, but then again, living four years with Androids dogging your tail all the time, you're bound to change.' Kakkhan didn't miss the look of surprise on Gohan's face, but he chose to ignore it. 'I guess I'll respect your wishes and just leave you alone. Good night, Gohan.'

Kakkhan turned away and disappeared. Gohan didn't call him back. He was too shocked by the statement about four years of being tortured by the Dark Androids turning him into something else. But Gohan didn't want to be something else. He wanted to be home with his family, his whole family, and be happy. He didn't want to fight. But the Dark Androids had come and changed him from a happy-go-lucky fighter into a distrusting and suspicious warrior who had grown up way too much faster.

Gohan sat down hard. He yelped in sudden surprise and removed the offending thing from his seat. The instant his hand touched it, Gohan knew what he held.

The little warrior brought out the crystal necklace. It sat in his hand, innocent looking in the callused hand it resided in. But Gohan knew there was more to it than met the eye. It still radiated that aura of hiding, even with the occult person gone. But Gohan was no longer suspicious of that person. He knew that whoever that person had been, his intentions had been good. Good enough for him to leave it behind for Gohan to pick up and make his own deductions.

Gohan sighed. He cleared his head of the thoughts of his look-alike and studied the necklace again. Tracing the crystal, Gohan's curiosity finally overwhelmed him. He took the ends of the ornament and placed it around his neck. Shifting the end to the front, Gohan tied the strings together, snugly fitting the necklace around his throat. He rotated the piece of jewelry so that the front was in the front and relaxed.

Immediately his back straightened. His head snapped up and his eyes regained their hopeful twinkle. A smirk crossed his face as his ki disappeared under his necklace's power. Gohan felt…_invincible_. It was like he and this necklace had been destined to be together.

But then he started to feel bad about the person who had tried to give the necklace to him. So he said his next statement, hoping that the person would hear it and forgive him.

'I'm sorry.'

::

Kakkhan smiled slightly as he felt Gohan's ki disappear. Just the fact that Gohan had even tried on the necklace to sate his curiosity made Kakkhan feel friendlier towards his past self. But the next thing he heard from Gohan totally surprised him.

'I'm sorry.'

Kakkhan was floored. He certainly hadn't expected this from Gohan. Cocking his head, Kakkhan smiled imperceptibly again, settled down on his perch on the abandoned building from earlier, and awaited the next day.

::

Gohan woke up the next day all fired up and ready to go. For a while, he wondered why, but then he remembered his dream. He gasped and felt his throat. His fingers met leather and crystal pendant instead of scarred skin. Gohan's jaw dropped as he felt the leather sitting there. He also realized that his ki had disappeared too, just like his double had said it would. His ki was so efficiently out that he was surprised that the Z-senshi hadn't stormed into his door to find out if he was dead or not.

Remembering the Z-senshi, he also remembered that Krillin and Vegeta had been killed by the Dark Androids. Rage swelled up in him again and Gohan let it run through him. His hair changed inconsistently from black to yellow, black to yellow, black to yellow. But the destined necklace was made for this purpose, so his ki level still wasn't detected. Gohan doubted that any power level he gained, be it Super Saiyan or something else, his necklace was not designed for.

Gohan traced the crystal again, pondering its familiarity to him. He was confused as to why the necklace would seem familiar to him. He had never seen it before, but it felt like he had known it since forever. Now why was that? It didn't look like anything he had ever seen before. Gohan frowned, remembering something from his short youth. His mother had told him once of finding a necklace tucked into the blankets of Gohan's crib when Gohan was still a baby. She had described it very much like this one, but Gohan was not sure of the exact details. Still, it was probably safe to assume that they were the same.

Gohan was going to think more, but then he smelled breakfast cooking in the air. Gohan brightened up and dashed down the stairs like he hadn't done for four years. His necklace had given him a feeling of being invincible that Gohan had never felt before and that had buoyed up Gohan's enthusiasm for life.

Gohan jumped into his chair and waited impatiently for his mother to bring him his food. He tore into it like lightning and gobbled up all the food. He didn't ask for more, however, knowing that their food had to be rationed for future years. Who knew when the Dark Androids were going to be defeated? But Gohan's tummy did complain a bit to him about only being half-full. Gohan didn't realize it, but it had been three and a half years since his stomach had even remotely done that kind of thing.

Gohan smiled at his mother and at a haphazardly pregnant Bulma who had just come down from her bedroom. The two women stared at Gohan and the sight they had not seen for almost four years. Chichi frowned and started to say something, but Gohan cut her off by starting to stretch and otherwise prepare for another day with the Dark Androids.

Gohan finished his stretches and walked outside. He was certain that the Dark Androids were going to strike today. He just needed to know where.

::

Kakkhan woke up slowly. He was slightly confused on the subject of where he was, but he didn't forget for long. Kakkhan stood up languidly and yawned. He stretched and bent his knees, waking his body up to join his mind.

At last he turned around to see the hulking figure behind him. Kakkhan coolly regarded the Dark Android standing in that place. He heard a whirring sound as the Dark Android scanned him for his information. Kakkhan smirked inwardly as he heard the mechanical monotone voice say, "I do not have any information on this person. I will just kill him then."

Kakkhan shook his head at the Dark Android's self-confident comment. The Dark Android started forward, but it was stopped by Kakkhan's question, "Before you kill me, what is your Android number?"

The Dark Android muttered something Kakkhan didn't want to repeat, then said, "I am Android 19. Prepare for your doom."

Kakkhan cocked his head. "Well, Dark Android 19, _you_ prepare for your doom. Goodbye." A single blast went right through the weakling 19's body and disposed of that one. Kakkhan crushed 19's head on instinct and went back to his chosen lookout post.

He felt the kis of many people go out in Blue Star City, so he flashed over there to observe the action. Blue Star City wasn't so far away from West City and Capsule Corps as Ina City had been, so Gohan and the remaining Z-senshi definitely got there quicker. Yamcha came quicker to his ruin that day as the Dark Android twins got tired of his Wolf Fang Fist and finished him off. Gohan reached a new sub-level of Super Saiyan that day. Now he was in the middle of SS1 power.

Kakkhan saw it all. He also destroyed another Dark Android by the name of 20. That was the good thing he did that day. The bad thing was that Dark 20 was much faster than Dark 19, so Dr. Gero's self-androidalization (My own word! Yippee!) managed to get in one ki blast before being demolished. That ki ball bounced off Kakkhan's ki shield and went straight into the air. It would land on Capsule Corps.

Gohan was doing better with the Dark Android twins this time around, but when he felt the kis of his mother and Bulma and her baby she was pregnant with just fizzle out, he was so taken with horror that he froze. Dark 18 took advantage of Gohan's hesitation and knocked his brains everywhere. Dark 17 punched the demi-Saiyan wide into the air and into an already ruined building. That building can now be more accurately described as ravished rocks.

Gohan climbed out of the rocks with fire in his eyes and grief-stricken rage singing in his blood of the Saiyans. He didn't have enough rage to go to the next sub-level of SS1, but his power was certainly enough that he was just below the level of Dark 18, even if his necklace did not show it.

Tien and Chiaotzu followed Piccolo smartly out of the way of the vengeance-wreaking angel that was Gohan. Dark 17 followed their gaze and spotted the bruised and bloody Gohan marching up to them. His razor-like gaze was almost scary, but not as dread-awakening as the other person they had met. Come to think of it, Gohan looked exactly like that boy. But he didn't have the stature that his identical had, nor did he have that terrifying Demise Glare that the unknown person had given them.

Dark 17 and Dark 18 pretended to be scared of Gohan, fueling his fire even more. Gohan really was mad now. He swept into their faces a flurry of punches and kicks that were almost too difficult for the Dark Gemini to block. But block they did, and finally the Dark twins beat him in a combo attack that no Saiyan, or any fighter, for that matter, should have to block. Gohan was sent flying into the ground. The Dark Androids were pretty beaten up themselves, but they had the temerity to laugh at the beaten Gohan panting in the crater. Then they looked up at Piccolo, Tien, and Chiaotzu, and grinned evilly.

Gohan closed his eyes as he felt the kis of his mentor and his father's friends flicker out. Son Gohan of Son Goku and Son Chichi of Chikyuu-sei was now the only survivor of the original Z-senshi on planet Earth.

The Dark Android twins flew back to their headquarters. They had much to discuss, especially yesterday's events. Perhaps it was time to awaken another one of their old comrades again. Perhaps Dark Android 16 could take out the person who had come only yesterday.

Gohan felt the Dark twins' shadows fly over him and knew they were leaving. After a while, Gohan determined he could get up without getting beaten half to death. Gohan crawled painfully out of his crater and stood up shakily. He looked up directly into Piccolo's severed head. Gohan grimaced and looked away into Tien's three-eyed stoic gaze. Gohan stared in a different direction only to be tortured by Yamcha's bleeding face. Gohan eyed the last direction and got what he expected, Chiaotzu's silent mouth open in a pleading position.

Gohan hung his head. A single tear dropped onto the ground, splattering the dusty broken cement with new liquid. Another tear, from the opposite side of his face, followed and splashed onto an untouched place. Two streams of tears strayed down his face as he looked toward the sky. Gohan, suddenly overtaken with rage, yelled, "WHY? WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME? HUH? TELL ME! TELL ME! TELL ME!"

Gohan dropped to the ground. "Tell me…Tell me why I have to go through this all the time. Tell me…" whispered he. His shoulders palpitated as his body was wracked with sobs. This continued for some time, Gohan finally crying out of tears twenty-seven minutes later.

Gohan got up and walked out of Blue Star City. He leaned onto a wrecked building in West City, knowing what he was going to see when he got to Capsule. He rested there for a long while. Finally Gohan pushed himself off of the vestiges and stumbled around it. He didn't think about anything, just let his feet find the path for him.

All too soon, Gohan stood in front of the chaotic remnants of what had once been a gloriously huge domed building labeled Capsule Corps. Gohan still wasn't thinking, but as he looked around the rubbish, he spotted a hand and part of an arm poking out of it. Gohan sighed and trekked over. Kneeling, he dug around the rocks, not wanting to touch the hand or arm. But the rocks kept filling in his hole, blocking whatever sight Gohan might have had of the person's clothes below.

Patiently, Gohan kept tunneling. Frustration dotted his features as the little rocks evaded his firm control and kept jumping back on in. Finally, Gohan simply grabbed the cold flesh and yanked out the human within. He turned the corpse over and stared dully at the surprised features of Son Chichi.


	18. Gohan's Grief

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, the unfamiliar languages, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

::::

Blah Laniin, untranslated

[**_Blah_**] = Laniin, translated

::::

Chapter Eighteen: Gohan's Grief

::::

Gohan didn't do anything. He simply kneeled over his mother's body, numbly accepting her death as the work of the Dark Androids, even if Gohan had been fighting the twins. Then another thought occurred to him. What if this had been the work of that person in his dreams? His look-alike?

Gohan said aloud, "Was it you who did this?"

Kakkhan sighed. He had been expecting this. He walked up beside Gohan and looked at the face of Chichi himself. "No. But it was my fault."

Gohan grunted. Kakkhan tensed himself in preparation for Gohan to do something the demi-Saiyan would probably regret later. Gohan bowed his head and wept inside. He had run out of tears crying for Yamcha and the others, so he couldn't cry on the outside for his mother. How ironic. He cried out all his tears for people he didn't even know all that well, except for Piccolo, and now when it came for the big occasion, Gohan was all out.

Suddenly Gohan jumped the gun and leapt at Kakkhan. Kakkhan swept his arm up and blocked Gohan's punch. Gohan then brought his knees up to gut Kakkhan in the stomach. The pureblooded Saiyan blocked that too. Gohan growled in frustration and combated on. Punch, punch, kick, punch, roundhouse, punch, left hook, right uppercut, kick, double-handed swipe down, ki blast, punch, a dodged kick, another Masenko, and a karate chop. Kakkhan blocked or ducked them all.

Gohan threw another Masenko, which Kakkhan deflected. Gohan gnashed his teeth together in angry disappointment and thrust a punch at Kakkhan. Kakkhan, this time, smacked him away into another crater, deepening that crater by three kilometers. Gohan breathed heavily and lay still.

Kakkhan walked to the end of the crater and watched his past self. He hoped that Gohan would be able to get over his anger at his future self for the deaths of Chichi, Bulma, and unborn baby Trunks. While it was Kakkhan's fault for their deaths, it was evident that Gohan was taking it a little too personally against Kakkhan. Especially after the "older" Saiyan had just said sorry. Looked like it was Kakkhan's turn this time.

Kakkhan took a deep breath and exhaled it. He sat on the edge of the crater and slid into light meditation. He breathed in and out, in… and… out… in… and… out…

Gohan wearily opened his eyes at the sound of regulated breathing. He saw his double meditating and looking so much like Piccolo-san that Gohan wanted to cry. Of course, he couldn't.

Gohan groaned and turned his head. His stomach heaved and he vomited onto the dirt next to him. He had seen too much death today. And he was likely to see much more tomorrow.

Finished, Gohan put his back on the ground. He looked at the sky again and found that the blue was gone, replaced by sad gray clouds hoping to rain. Gohan squinted at the sky and then closed his eyes. Almost immediately a raindrop fell in the middle of his forehead. Gohan relaxed and let the rain come.

Kakkhan didn't stir as the rain splattered onto him. He continued to meditate, ignoring everything around him and yet aware of everything at the same time. He diligently kept up his activity, even as Gohan finally heaved his body out of the crater and climbed up the seven-kilometer crater. Kakkhan kept his eyes closed even as a weary Gohan staggered to his feet and stood crookedly, his torso out of proportion to the rest of his body.

Kakkhan only opened his eyes as he sensed Gohan bend down toward him. He solidified a ki shield to support Gohan before the younger demi-Saiyan could fall. Gohan, not knowing where the support came from, but not caring either, leaned almost all of his weight on it. Kakkhan closed his eyes again. Gohan noticed and sagged again. This time his feet did come off the ground, resting Gohan on his elbow entirely on the air above Kakkhan.

Gohan bent his head down to the ground in a moment of shame and muttered quickly, "Sorry."

Kakkhan didn't respond. Gohan sighed again and closed his eyes as well. Only to be startled awake by a brusque voice, "C'mon Gohan, let's get you healed up for tomorrow's battles." Gohan looked at the fighter standing up and brushing his clothes clean of the dusty blood and other such gross details. Then he looked at what he was standing on. To his surprise, he could faintly see a gold outline under his arm. Gohan stared at it, fascinated by all the shifting shades of gold and bronze yellow he could see in there. Bouncing on the shield, Gohan winced as he got a re-definition of the word "solid".

Kakkhan's mouth quivered in a spectral ghost of a smirk and he turned his head to hide it from Gohan. He spotted the shadow of an akuma darting away from his sight and sobered down. He remembered what he was here for, and resolved to do it before long. Before the chibis started to wonder where he went again, before Bulma and Chichi started to worry again, before all of the Z-senshi got into an uproar. Kakkhan shook his head at the retreating shadow of InuYasha. But what was InuYasha doing here, and not Lotto?

Gohan inadvertently interrupted Kakkhan's musings by groaning at the sharp pain suddenly felt in his back during stretching. Kakkhan turned to his friend to see what was the matter. He managed to catch Gohan as his younger self fell over backwards from trying to stretch his back too fast. Gohan looked up at his rescuer and a faint blush appeared on his cheeks. Kakkhan ignored it and helped him up.

Gohan had to lean on Kakkhan's ki shield again as they moved away from the dreaded downfall of Capsule. Gohan looked back one more time. Realizing that that had been a mistake, Gohan was finally struck with the full effect and meaning of the deaths of his biological mother and his second mother.

Kakkhan looked at Gohan's face when he felt his clone stiffen. He noted that Gohan was breathing a lot more raggedly and his face, normally a pale color, was as milk-white as porcelain. His eyes were wide and his pupils were dilated. Gohan was very good at hiding his emotions, but Kakkhan was enough of an expert at interpreting his own face to see that Gohan was having a nervous breakdown. So Kakkhan did what was quite possibly the most Saiyanly thing to do. The pure knocked out the half.

Carrying Gohan's limp body in his hands like a precious treasure, Kakkhan flew back to Blue Star City. He changed his mind and sidetracked to beyond Ina City to Quebenia City (1). He knew that Gohan and the Z-senshi had failed to save the city quite a long time ago, but perhaps the battle would be so enlaced into Gohan's subconscious that it would be lost. Lost amongst all the other battles forfeited to the Dark Androids over the course of four years.

Kakkhan perched on one building and vaulted off of it as it crumbled further to join its companions on the ground. Kakkhan zoomed onto another and jumped onto a third. From there he landed gracefully on the ground. All three buildings lamented their fates in a loud wailing sonicboom as they stumbled to their knees. They crashed beyond that point onto their faces, forever to lie there still until a planet purger came along and wiped the world of its historical rises, and its even more historical falls.

::::

Gohan woke up. As usual, he was bouncing up within two minutes out of bed into the oddly placed bathroom adjoining it. While in the bathroom, Gohan cheerfully grabbed a toothbrush and started obliviously piling crusty toothpaste onto it. The demi-Saiyan was thwacked, however, into reality as he saw the dirt and coated grime on the mirror. He stared at the toothbrush held ready in his hand, saw for the first time the toothpaste he had (un-)successfully attempted to put on it, and of the world and its reality. His dream of home, his real home, was shattered once more.

He slumped out of the bathroom, back in what used to be his mundane everyday depression under the oppression of the Dark Androids. Gohan sat on the musty bed and cried, for the lives he hadn't been able to save, and for the lives he would not be able to save, in the future.


	19. Final Showdown of Darkness

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, the unfamiliar languages, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

:#:#:#:

Blah Laniin, untranslated

[**_Blah_**] = Laniin, translated

:#:#:#:

Chapter Nineteen: Final Showdown of Darkness

:#:#:#:

Kakkhan stood silently over the sleeping Gohan. He shifted his face molecules to see more properly Gohan's face. The demi-Saiyan's red face had tear streaks scratching his cheeks. Kakkhan wondered why this was so. He got his answer by looking in the young mind.

Kakkhan shifted and directed his molecules to the bathroom. There he found the toothpaste and the toothbrush just lying around the broken and rusted sink. Kakkhan understood now something of what the young adult was going through. Kakkhan felt vaguely bad for bringing Gohan here. He should have known that any place touched by the Dark Androids would deeply scar Gohan. But Kakkhan didn't understand that, having been trained on Giendon to be emotionless in battle and on any battleground.

Kakkhan tilted his head molecules as he thought some more. On the other hand, Kakkhan understood perfectly, in a different sense. Having "deserted" Giendon, he had subconsciously designated Janden and the Laniins as strangers to himself. Kakkhan felt an ache in his bones whenever he thought about Giendon, no matter what part of the planet he was thinking about. So yes, he knew more than somewhat what Gohan was going through.

Kakkhan sensed Gohan start in motion the beginnings of the awakening process and drifted back out. He settled in the darkest corner as was his customary place in every corner every time he used the Shadow Body Power Level. Kakkhan called the Shadow Body Power Level, Shabo, to make it easier on himself to say.

The young Legendary Lord watched Gohan wake up and look around, re-orientating himself much better and much more controlled than before, though this time it was more of a resigned reaction than a nervous breakdown as earlier in the day had been.

Gohan had fallen asleep after he had cried out the few tears he had regained from yesterday. He didn't really know how he had that feat, since it took a lot more than only a half-hour of crying. He had thought he had seen a slouching form just beside his bed, but he wasn't sure what it was. But one thing was certain, it hadn't been human.

Gohan looked around. He felt…odd, in a way. He felt something that he hadn't felt in a long time. He felt safe. And if there was a certain thing that Gohan knew for certainty about his world, was that he shouldn't feel safe. At all.

Kakkhan oversaw Gohan look around warily and wished sorely, not for the first time, that he, as an immortal Saiyanling, could control the side effect of making his best friends feel safe. It really made things difficult, especially when Kakkhan didn't want to let the person he was around to know he was even there.

As Gohan searched around for him, Kakkhan shifted again. Gohan was thrown off guard a bit as his reading senses were scrambled. While Gohan tried to reorganize those aforementioned senses, Kakkhan slowly floated from his corner to the ripped open wall he had come through to bring Gohan here. He almost solidified, but InuYasha's lunge across the floor directed his attention from that.

Kakkhan followed the inu akuma's trajectory and realized the sarcastic demon wanted to be followed. Casting a backwards look at the furled-forehead Gohan, Kakkhan turned away and chased after the retreating akuma.

At one point, the Legendary Lord solidified as he raced around a corner. He skidded smoothly to a stop in front of the growling inu in front of him. Kakkhan accepted the growl for what it really was and grunted a greeting back.

_'Hello, InuYasha. And why are you here?' _Kakkhan questioned, crossing his arms.

It snarled a curse of which Kakkhan ignored and tapped his foot impatiently. InuYasha took the hint and spoke without cursing, a feat in itself for the inu.

_'You know why I'm here. You have to finish this job quickly. If you take any longer than today at helping your half-Saiyan ward defeat the Dark Androids of this timeline, the whole balance of this Time will be knocked out of sorts. You as the Legendary Lord know that is not a desirable thing.'_

Kakkhan nodded curtly. _'Yes. I do know. Believe me, it was not on my agenda to have Gohan get a nervous breakdown simply because I made a calculative error in the location.'_

InuYasha snorted in slight amusement at Kakkhan's exasperated choice of words and word order. Kakkhan glared at the inu as he waited for the akuma's laughing fit to die down. When it had, Kakkhan continued.

_'Now tell me why _you're _here, and not _my _Guardian.'_

InuYasha then shuffled Its paws in embarrassment, another feat in itself for the inu akuma. It didn't take offense at Kakkhan's emphasis on _you're_ because it was not good for InuYasha's image to be sent on a mission like this like, well, like a dog. __

'Ah, well. Dammit, it's a complicated matter. I'm sure you,_ you (censored), wouldn't want to be bored by the trivial details. So I'm just going to give you the (censored) big picture here.'_

InuYasha shuffled Its paws again. Kakkhan noticed again that the paws were unnaturally large for an inu, a telltale sign of the akuma at first sight. Another obvious two were that forked tail and the fact that InuYasha even talked. It took a slightly deeper breath and started.

_'I'm here to tell your (censored) ward about his duty in the future.'_

:#:#:#:

Gohan finally locked on the source of the unnaturally safe feeling. Although it had gotten weaker for a while, it was back and stronger than ever. As if it was right beside his bed.

Gohan turned his head to the left and saw nothing. To the right, and still nothing. Back to the left. This time Gohan was met by the sight of his mysterious double standing there sturdily, accompanied by an aberrantly large inu.

Gohan's eyes were drawn to the grotesquely overlarge details ensuing each other on the inu's body. The nostrils with their noisy flaring of each reeking breath, the sleekly anorexic body, the enlarged paws and claws, the dominantly ruby eyes, the rectangular circled head, and the saber-toothed tiger fangs poking out of the corners of the inu's mouth. Gohan almost missed, however, the forked tail lashing in every direction behind the busily disproportional body of the dog standing beside the calm twin of Gohan, Saiyan Warrior.

Gohan managed not to totally freak out at the sight. He failed in his reaction when his own twin bespoke the demon's freakiness by saying, _'InuYasha, you may speak now. But beware, no swearing.'_

InuYasha snarled. The snarl was more than a little frightening, but that was not what made the hairs on Gohan's neck rise. It was both the fact that Gohan's lookalike was completely unaffected by it, and that Gohan actually understood the growl.

_'Hey, I can't help my lousy vocabulary. I've had a d—uh, awfully long lifetime, and you're influenced by many things, mostly mortals with more primitive language than I have.' _InuYasha hastily corrected Itself at a warning glance from the Friend of all Akumas. It continued in a gentler voice to Gohan.

_'So you're the one. Hmm, you don't look so good. Then again, your…guardian doesn't quite look his part either, so I…guess you'll do.'_

Gohan watched wide-eyed as InuYasha struggled to keep Itself from saying the words that his double so wanted the inu to not say. Speaking of the double, he seemed to be satisfied with the efforts of the akuma. He said nothing at all, but his eyes did go over to the akuma whenever Inu was about to say a swearword. But besides that, he didn't say a thing.

Gohan wished he would. It would be such a relief, because then Gohan could say this was a dream. But no, he knew this was no dream.

_'All right, mortal, this is what I'm here for. I'm going to tell you what those…dreams…of yours are about.'_

Gohan's attention was trapped at those words. He had been having these recurring dreams for the past two days, ever since he had gotten his necklace actually, about going through a big tunnel of light to a single spot of darkness caged in light. Gohan, in his dream, always wanted to go past the cage of light into the darkness. But right when Gohan was about to step into it, something with tremendous force always pulled him away. But not before Gohan saw the reflection of himself inside looking out at him.

That was always when Gohan woke up.

:#:#:#:

Gohan strode purposefully through the tattered and torn streets. He could feel the heat explosions from the Dark Androids' ki blasts, but neither quickened his pace nor slowed down. If what the inu, InuYasha, had said about his future was true, then there was no rush.

He rounded a corner and halted calmly. There they were. The Dark Androids. Shooting still intact buildings into rubble just for the fun of it, no less.

Dark 18 looked to her side and looked again. She grinned evilly and tapped her brother on the shoulder.

"Hey 17, guess who's back? Our favorite toy." She smirked. Dark 17 looked in the direction of her nod and grinned himself.

"Heh, heh, heh. Well, this is really going to make our day complete. Why don't we give him a special welcome?" he replied. Dark 18 nodded again.

Without warning, they dived away from their ki blasting and shot to within a few feet of Gohan, who was still standing there as calmly as if he had not noticed that they had arrived. Dark 17 frowned at the lack of reaction he was getting from the young warrior. He was not used to getting nothing out of Gohan, he was used to seeing anger, fear, and hate wrinkling the face of one so young as Gohan, but not today! No, there was nothing there, not even resignation, though there were suspicious signs of tear streaks on his face, as if he had been crying. The streaks were offset by the strong look of unemotion set firmly on his face. The combination of streaks and unemotion actually made a rather dashing figure of heroism, if you really cared to look loosely at the picture. (Anybody wanna make fan art now? Hehe, ya can if you want. LOL)

Dark 18 also noticed, but as she was not a romantic, she just tossed it out of her mind and got ready for a fight. This was going to be fun. She let herself fall into an offensive fighting stance, noting only distantly when her brother did the same. Gohan still stood there, calm, unmoving, and unemotional.

They stood there like this for several minutes, neither moving. Gohan, however, was doing more than just stand there and be calm. He was making a journey.

:#:#:#:

As depicted so many times before, Gohan was surrounded by light. This, InuYasha had told him, was his mind. It was odd, for Gohan had always surmised that the inside of one's head would be dark, brooding. But no, not his. It was all white, thankfully in varying shades and one shade changing into another all the time. It was very interesting to watch one shade of white go into another, and another, and yet another. But Gohan didn't have the time to be light watching now. He had a mission to accomplish (hehe a BIG political pun on G. W. Bush in my beloved country of America just now. Joke actually not funny, I'm sure)_ and was not going to dawdle in its completion. _(Heeheehee)__

Gohan struck out in any general direction, knowing that the single spot of darkness with Its cage of light would bring Itself to him no matter where he went. He just had to be aimless in his stroll through his own mind.

Sure enough, Gohan soon found himself facing the orb of slow moving darkness encased in light that so haunted his dreams. InuYasha had told him that this ball of darkness was there for a reason. It would not tell him what that reason was, nor what the darkness represented. All Gohan knew was that he was supposed to step past the enclosure of light into the darkness and let It…use_…him. Gohan would know when he was supposed to step out of the darkness, but again, InuYasha would not tell him how he would know. Gohan felt a slight tremble of fear at stepping into the darkness, but he repressed it as soon as it came. InuYasha had told him that it was…err…_natural_ to resist the idea first, all mortals did when faced with this darkness. But Gohan _was_ supposed to let the darkness take care of him and Gohan was, indeed, on a mission._

Gohan took a deep breath as he stepped the third-to-last final step. He stopped here for no other reason than having a sense of déjà vu, before the feeling_ came._

The feeling_ was of warmth emanating from the darkness within the light. It drew him in, as in his dream, and made Gohan feel at home like no other place had. Gohan wanted to go into the darkness, let It overtake him forever and ever, but something made him pause. This wasn't a dream. Nothing would draw him back from the temptation of the orb pulsating softly in front of him. It was just him and the dark. Gohan tilted his head, then shook it, dimly annoyed. He was supposed to do this. Wasn't he?_

Without his knowing, Gohan took the last two steps, ending up just inside of the crate of light, and the dark was on him.

:#:#:#:

He opened his eyes and panicked. He couldn't see anything, he was in utter and complete darkness! He struggled, twisting this way and that and trying to find a way out of there. All at once, he halted, for the feeling_ came again. Warmth spread through him and dulled his limbs, his senses, his very mind. The child thought dimly about struggling, but did nothing to stop the darkness from taking his mind, soul, heart, or body. He didn't mind as the darkness spread out and tainted the opalescent shades of white that were his mind, nor did he remotely care when he felt his body moving on its own. The boy didn't even care to know that he was beating the Androids to shreds. The very banes of his existence were now at his mercy, but he didn't care. He was perfectly happy to let the darkness deal with them, even though metal parts spattered everywhere and two metal hearts were in his hands. Not _his_ hands, he corrected himself, the darkness' hands._

He lethargically closed his eyes and viewed no more the destruction of the Dark Androids as he dozed.

:#:#:#:

Dark 17 couldn't believe it. How did this pathetic weakling, sniveling just two days ago about the death of his weak friends, get so strong? He was beating them soundly, almost like a flogging given from a soldier to a civilian! This boy was not human!

_Duh,_ he thought to himself as he tried to get Gohan's grip off of his ankle, _he's a halfbreed Saiyan. Of course he's not human. But still, this is impossible! He shouldn't be able to beat us so soon after we last defeated him!_

Gohan, or what _was_ Gohan, tossed Dark 17 into the air like a rag doll. 17 tried to right himself, but found himself choking out greenish blood instead as a head rammed through his ribs. Dark 18 had followed his helpless ascent into the air with one of her own in a much speedier route, thus catching her brother in the gut with her blonde head. As the Dark Gemini reeled from the collision, Gohan shot up into the air with them. He began to beat on them mindlessly, a rather Saiyan-like smirk gracing his otherwise cold features. The darkness that was controlling Gohan gave the Dark Twins (who were disgracing the name of Dark by destroying everything like sadistic zombies) no mercy, so it was to the relief of the gasping Twins when Dark Gohan let up for a tiny bit. The relief was _very_ short-lived, however, when Dark Gohan again darted into their presence. This time around, though, he was much fiercer, as if he wanted this done with already. This time around, he was breaking the Dark Androids to pieces, literally.

During this dispersion of long overdue justice, four unnamed figures watched from the sidelines in their own respective places. One was lounging languidly on the roof corner of one of the infrequently unbroken buildings there, swinging his leg back and forth absently as he watched the proceedings. The three others were more sensibly keeping their own feet on the ground. Out of these other three, only one was a Humanoid; the two others were animalistic. Both the bestial beings waved forked tails, while the Humanoid with them sported a wavy scythe gleaming in what little light there was in the shadows. One of the animal beings was hatefully pale, and the other was sleekly dark and in a sarcastic mood. Comments could be heard between these two beasts about the state of things around here, and one can be sure that said comments were not positive.

When all was said and done, Dark Gohan calmly floated to the ground, acting as if nothing had happened and he had just come back from a peaceful flight. Pieces of metal clattered to the ground before and after he did, raining metal as he dropped down. The lightlessness of the Dark warrior's eyes slowly disappeared as the true Gohan came to the surface again, bringing all of his emotions with him. Soon the sparkle of life danced in those eyes again, hidden only slightly by confusion and a bit of leftover lethargy.

The four figures on the sidelines stirred as he walked towards them, metal still clanging all around him in its unforeseen descent from the sky. They finally met in a clash of Nature, for Nature never meant for a hybrid Saiyan to meet with two demons, one Horseman, and one Future Immortal, all at once. Of course, Nature never meant for there to be a _hybrid_ Saiyan either, but the rules were severely bent in that case, as they were in this case. For InuYasha, Yoko, Yoki, Kakkhan, and Gohan had some very important matters to talk about. Very important matters.

Gohan was introduced to the "Y pair", as Yoko and Yoki were known otherwise as, and was made nervous by their obvious enjoyment of the blood- and metal-shed that had just taken place. Gohan didn't really get what they were crowing about, for he had just woken up from his semi-doze in time to perceive that the battle was over. He had come to himself, and Gohan had derived that all the pieces of metal, with _green stuff_ splashed all over the place, including himself, had formerly been two terrifying Dark Androids, and that they were gone forevermore from this world. Gohan was actually trying to hold himself together from seeing all that icky _green stuff_ everywhere, for he was sure it was blood, the blood of the Androids, and he found that he didn't like the sight as much as he thought he might have. But anyway, he remembered how it had felt to wake up, and the knowledge of what he had just done whacking him over the head with a ten-pound frying pan.

:#: **_FLASHBACK MODE_** :#:

'You will know when to wake up.' _The snarl reverberated in the darkness. He opened his eyes and was told happily by the dark that the battle was over, the war was won. The child smiled sleepily and prepared to doze again, when the snarl came back._

'You will know when to wake up.' _He attempted to glare at the offending noise, but failed in his attempt as he could not discern the origins of the sound. The boy apathetically looked about for it, but ceased soon in the action. He was _so_ tired._

His pale forehead suddenly furrowed into a frown. You will know when to wake up_…?_ _What was that supposed to mean? He pondered it, growing more conscious the more he thought about the message. _You will know when to wake up. _He _was_ waking up. The thought caused a start to gong all along his body. _You will know when to wake up.

He saw that the darkness was growing thinner, no longer tainting the shades of white in his mind. It was retreating back into the cage It originally was in and pushing him, Its child, out of Its protective embrace as It was doing so. He didn't want to leave the darkness, but something was drawing him away, the same force as in his dreams. His dreams. With another start, the boy realized just what had happened. He had completed the mission. Or rather, the darkness had completed the mission.

Gohan looked wide-eyed at the darkness retreating solemnly from the majority of his mind. When the dark had reassembled into Its true form, It just pulsated benignly at him again, then drew Itself and Its cage away out of his sight, but not out of his mind.

Gohan was left to wrestle with the happenings and with waking up_. _


	20. Enigmas Unwrapped, Partially

****

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, the unfamiliar languages, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

Chapter Dedication: To **SSJ5 Tigger **in honor of it being her belated b-day. Happy B-day!!

::::

Blah Laniin, untranslated

[**_Blah_**] = Laniin, translated

::::

Chapter Twenty: Enigmas Unwrapped, Partially

::::

Gohan shook himself out of his remembrances and looked up just in time to witness Yoki a.k.a. the Grim Reaper lash out with his scythe. Gohan's eyes grew big as he saw the ghostly holograms of Dark 17 and Dark 18 appear behind Yoki. The Grim Reaper looked disdainfully at them, then looked back at Gohan's doppelganger.

It said to Kakkhan, _'Well, we'll see you in a little while, Legendary Lord. Right now, Yoko and I have to escort these two to Yemma. No doubt where they'll end up, but havta follow the guidelines. If you go to the Akuma Dimension, Legendary Lord, you can introduce yourself to my companion Horsemen and help them make themselves at home. They just arrived, you know, from _A' Brea' Keea_, and they'll need someone to show them around.'_

Kakkhan simply raised an eyebrow and said, _'No, thank you, Reaper. I have no desire to 'show' anyone around. I know what you're like as a Horseman, and I despair greatly at the thought of there being more of you.'_

Yoki laughed, a sound that sent shivers down one's spine. _'Oh, thanks a lot, Legendary Lord. You're a fair weather friend.' _Kakkhan smirked evilly for a response. Yoki grinned again as Yoko tossed his ruby-eyed head. _'All right, all right already, Yoko. We'll go. I know how much you want to be with your cousins.'_

This teasing remark earned a hatred-filled glare from the uma akuma to the Death Bringer, which only made the Akuma Rider laugh heartily again in Its serpentine voice. However, Kakkhan could see that Yoko, beneath all the dramatics, really did want to meet Its "cousins," if that was indeed what Its relation to the other Horseman Akumas was. Kakkhan had his doubts about that, however.

InuYasha sneered at Kakkhan, who simply nodded back, and then all three departed for the Akuma Dimension.

Gohan, during all this, was bug-eyed in alarm. He had not understood a word of what Yoki had said to Kakkhan and what Kakkhan had said to Yoki. It was not that Gohan didn't understand what They were talking about, he didn't understand Them, period. They had blocked him out of Their conversation and all Gohan had heard had been hisses, snarls, squeaks, sneers, leers, and every other sinister noise one can think of. Gohan had particularly been dismayed when the Grim Reaper had laughed twice in Its sinister voice, for he hadn't understood the reason for the laugh, and so couldn't think positively about the reason. It was to the understandable relief of Gohan when the akumas and Horseman disappeared, for then They were away from him and could trouble him no longer.

Kakkhan, seeing the relief on Gohan's face, raised an eyebrow in a question. He remembered that he hadn't included Gohan in on his conversation with Yoki, so he would have only heard what an outsider would have heard. That was not a pretty experience. Kakkhan kicked himself mentally for his absent-minded stupidity as he walked away from Gohan, going into Shabo when he was out of sight, and zoomed away from the area. He left Gohan staring after him, wondering about him and the puzzle he presented Gohan with.

Gohan stood in that place for some time, before he slowly, bemusedly, made his way into the building Kakkhan had just vacated the roof of. He was unmindful of the fact that this was not an apartment building, therefore there would be no beds. Really, the best thing Gohan could have done for himself was to go up to Kami's Lookout, where, unfortunately, Kami was dead, as well as Mr. Popo, but there were nice clean beds to sleep on. Much better than trying to find a sleeping place in an office building for Public Relations, such as Gohan found himself doing. However, Gohan had much to think about, and could not waste his time for thinking in hunting for a bed. So he just chose a corner to drop into and thought.

::::

It had been the middle of the morning in the Dark Android fight. It was now late afternoon as Kakkhan located Gohan via his [presence] in the 21st building of the Ina City Public Relations. He observed in the far corner of the first floor the bundle of flesh and worn gi that was Gohan either in meditation or sleeping. Kakkhan couldn't tell which yet. It was all because of that ki damper. Kakkhan mentally rolled his eyes and cast about for a place to put down the food in his arms. He found a table and spilled his load onto it, then set about organizing the packages of dried food, water in a capsule, orange and apple juice in a capsule, and other such foods. Kakkhan divided the piles into two, one pile being slightly bigger than the other. The big pile Kakkhan set aside for Gohan. The smaller he devoured himself.

Kakkhan finished the last box of his portion in a matter of seconds. He cleaned up his mess and dumped it all in several waste paper baskets lying around. Done with his house cleaning, Kakkhan seated himself in a comfortable chair by one of the windows. The window was cracked and badly in need of a wash, but Kakkhan wasn't there to look outside. Nah, it was just meditation time.

Kakkhan sank into his controlled stupor and let the day replay back at him. He had been disturbed when InuYasha had outlined the plan to his past counterpart and some of what Gohan was going to feel in the darkness. InuYasha had not told Gohan that the darkness would not only overtake him, but would actually enslave him. While Kakkhan knew that the darkness meant no harm to anyone, much less Gohan, he was still uncomfortable with the fact that Gohan had been a mindless zombie while the darkness had used his body to get rid of the Dark Androids. Still, it was better Gohan than himself, Kakkhan was ashamed to admit. He hopefully would never let anyone take him over and make him a slave, even if it was for a worthy cause.

Kakkhan shuddered inwardly as his train of thought continued to how fiercely Dark Gohan had fought. It was as if he were an animal who knew no better than to follow its instincts and defend itself, instead of being an on-off depressed warrior/energetic child, a sparkle in his eyes no matter which state he was in. Kakkhan knew that it was likely, all too likely, for that was exactly what Darkness was. Darkness was an animalistic power, which just needed guidance in life. All too often, the guidance was supplied by evil, and things were destroyed and killed by the powers of Darkness. All Darkness needed to be good was a little patience and to be pointed in the right direction by those who truly understood it. Sadly, though, Darkness almost never got that patience from the right people, so It remained known as evil. Kakkhan resolved to always respect the darkness, even if he wouldn't let It use him.

That over with, Kakkhan turned to his own core of power, the globe of pure Light ensconced within Darkness. It groveled for him, begged to use him. Kakkhan eyed It coldly, not stepping within the Light's range. He knew better than to do that, thanks to his experience after the fight with the Cold family. Kakkhan supposed that he was going to have to go into the Light sometime in his long future. When he did, the immortal predicted that he would be in control of the Light, not the other way around. The Light would not get Its way with Kakkhan when the immortal finally stepped into Its embrace. Kakkhan was going to use the Light, not the other way around. The immortal promised this to the shrieking ball broiling in front of him before he looked up and away from the Light. He searched the Dark in his mind for the intrusion, then sped away from his core of power to deal with it.

Kakkhan awoke from his meditation just as Gohan opened his own eyes. The two stared at each other for about two full breaths, then Kakkhan motioned silently to the food on the table.

"Eat," he commanded. Gohan hesitated, his hunger battling his need to know more about Kakkhan and also his need to ration food. Reaching a compromise between the three equally important ideas, Gohan dived in amongst the boxes of food and ate. Kakkhan watched impassively as Gohan dined on the food, eating fast at times and eating slow at other times. Kakkhan reflected on how much of that food had come from his own supply: about 3/5ths of the entire thing. It was good preparation Kakkhan had undergone in keeping his self-fulfilling refrigerator capsules with him. He never knew when he'd get hungry or when he'd have another Saiyan as a guest, like right now. Ah, the wonders of Laniin technology.

Kakkhan forced himself to calmly think about that still painful subject. It was painful because he had realized why he had been taken off the planet Earth at age two. The Laniins had seen that he had had the potential to be a truly powerful warrior and had taken precautions to make sure that he would not use that power against them. Kakkhan was not entirely sure when he knew that something was wrong in the relationship between the Laniins and Kakkhan, but he thought he perceived it dimly at first when Aslib had shown a bit of fear one time in one of their daily training spars.

The flash had disappeared as soon as it had come and had never showed up again, but it had stayed with Kakkhan and haunted his dreams. Kakkhan had no doubt it was because of his humongous Super Saiyan powers. It just scared Kakkhan out of his skin to see them frighten such an unruffled warrior such as Aslib. However, Kakkhan refused to let his already gained powers put fear into him. It was just the power he could reach that got to Kakkhan so much. Yet the immortal knew he had to reach that power one day. That day was not today.

Before, when Kakkhan was working to reach SS2, he had been afraid of his powers too. But Aslib had been there to help him, even in the memory of that flash of fear, and Kakkhan had soon had control. But Kakkhan would not have Aslib's help in reaching and controlling any of the powers beyond. It was precisely this fact that Kakkhan was worried, and for good reason. Kakkhan was not a planet-destroyer.

He saw Gohan was done, putting a box of cookies away with a look of longing. Kakkhan guessed accurately that the demi-Saiyan wasn't full to the brim yet, but didn't want to eat anymore food. He raised an eyebrow anyway and asked, "Done?"

Gohan looked up, looking rather like a deer caught in headlights as he tried to decipher his doppelganger's abrupt breakage of the silence. When he figured it out, Gohan stammered in answer, "Uh, yeah. Thanks."

Kakkhan nodded, but then sighed and said, "If you're not full, Gohan, eat to your heart's content. There's plenty more where that came from," bulldozing over Gohan's hesitant answer to his first question. Gohan was surprised again by Kakkhan's bluntness. But he was a bit firmer in his answer this time.

"Uh, no thanks. I really am done. Really," Gohan added at Kakkhan's disbelieving snort. "It's just that I haven't seen this much food in so long," he finished in a whisper. Kakkhan was still unconvinced but let the matter slide for the moment. Kakkhan then stepped out of his chair to help Gohan with cleaning up. They worked in silence, making short work of the gruesome mess Gohan had made of the office. They stayed silent long after they were done, until finally Gohan spoke up.

"Um, what's your name?" At Kakkhan's semi-surprised look, Gohan elaborated, "I can't keep calling you my clone, now can I?"

Kakkhan smirked slightly about that. He had been named worse. "Well, no, you can't." He looked away for a bit, as if trying to stall in giving out his true identity. In truth, he was contemplating whether or not to give Gohan his name. The Kais knew that his past counterpart certainly was worthy of knowing who Kakkhan was; it was just that Kakkhan had been raised not to reveal his identity to others whom did not know it.

His moment of thought over, Kakkhan looked back at a waiting Gohan. Pretending at first not to know what Gohan was waiting for, he then moved his head upwards and rolled his eyes, as if he had just remembered what they were talking about. He said, "Oh. My name. Yeah. It's Kakkhan, nice to meet you," stretching out a hand to shake.

Gohan took it. "Son Gohan. So how did you manage to survive the Androids for so long? You look my age."

Kakkhan replied, "I could say the same for you. But," stalling Gohan's surprised answer, "I haven't been in the area for long. It's only been three days since I arrived on this world."

Again, Kakkhan was telling the truth, but only one side of it. That would come later, with the right questions. Kakkhan was going to answer everything Gohan threw at him, even if it was about his past. He owed his counterpart that much, which he did not owe the Z-senshi of his own time.

Gohan nodded, taking the answer. Then he frowned, catching an anomaly in Kakkhan's sentence that did not sit with him well.

"This world? You're not a native Earthling?" he asked. Kakkhan shook his head sideways, much like he used to do to Balannon when his four-fingered friend was being silly.

"No. I'm a pure-blooded Saiyan through and through."

"How? You couldn't have survived when Frieza blew up Vegeta-sei. Everything and everyone was blown up!"

Kakkhan looked at Gohan. "A Saiyan could have survived if they were not on the planet in the first place." Gohan was ashamed by his desertion of logic even as Kakkhan went on to say, "I was born after the destruction of Vegeta-sei anyway. I am your age," feeding Gohan's own words back to him.

Gohan nodded, still ashamed. He asked another question quickly enough, however, feeling an insane need to know all about this mysterious person who looked exactly like him.

"Who were your parents?"

Kakkhan didn't look up, but replied in a bored tone instead, "I never knew them. They're not dead," he added, anticipating Gohan's offerings of condolences, "I just never knew them."

They were quiet again, Kakkhan waiting for Gohan's questions and Gohan mulling over the scant information he had. Finally—

"What planet are you from, if not Vegeta-sei?"

Kakkhan turned to Gohan at last and settled himself for a long explanation. They were finally getting somewhere. "Earth," he said, meeting Gohan's surprised look.

"Wait—but—you told me were from another world!" he stammered, completely taken off guard.

Kakkhan smirked. It was only a flash of movement creasing his face, but it was definitely a smirk. It was amusing to see Gohan so flabbergasted. He would have to do that again.

"I said world, not planet. I am from the future, Son Gohan, and everything I have just told you is the truth, up to a point. I would not lie to you, Gohan, and I have not. Be assured that you can trust me, even if you don't believe me," he answered, ending his mini-speech strongly on that point.

Gohan was still staring at him, his emotions of shock, fear, and distrust chasing each other on his face. Kakkhan met his gaze stoically, willing the other to trust him. For what reason Kakkhan so wanted his counterpart's trust and respect, he could not have said. He only knew that he had a deep respect for Gohan, and hoped that he had been as dutiful a person as Gohan had been his whole life. It was because of this respect that Kakkhan sought Gohan's trust, but Kakkhan would not make that connection for some time yet. It was also that, subconsciously, Kakkhan reasoned that if he had his counterpart's respect, he also had his own respect. Of course, that was not the same thing, but Logic is irrational.

Finally Gohan looked away, breaking off his challenge to Kakkhan. Kakkhan relaxed slightly, for he had tensed up during the staring match. He vigilantly kept up his guard, however, for he never knew what questions would come his way.

"You're from the future? Whose version are you?" Gohan asked, still not looking at Kakkhan. The latter didn't answer but only looked at Gohan's downcast face hidden behind his not-quite-out-of-his-face bangs. He locked eyes with Gohan again as his counterpart raised them. He said, gently, "Do you really want me to answer that question?"

Gohan was caught in the dark gaze of his twin. Not his twin, his future counterpart, Kakkhan, he corrected himself absently. Somehow Gohan perceived a darkness in Kakkhan, a darkness that was not unnatural to Kakkhan. However, Gohan could see that was also light inside Kakkhan, but it was buried so deep down in his soul Gohan was half-afraid that it was lost. Then Kakkhan's gaze shifted, and Gohan was brought back, blinking, from the edge of the abyss, back onto Kakkhan's face. Gohan noted that Kakkhan seemed a little exhausted, but he couldn't really tell with that emotionless mask Kakkhan had on.

Kakkhan had (somewhat reluctantly, it might be added) let Gohan in behind his eyes, and even let him see the core of light sheathed by the darkness of his soul. However, Kakkhan did not allow Gohan to fully enter his mind. That the immortal refused flat-out to do. He would not do that to someone he did not respect. Not even Gohan, whom he _did_ respect but was not respected by him in turn. However, he was resigned to being grilled on end for answers, much like he had been subjected to already. It was funny, he mused, that he had sat through this sort of thing just days ago with the Z-senshi, only have the answers to Kakkhan's past and who he was be revealed to someone else. True, that someone else was more closely related to Kakkhan than the Z-senshi, but it was still ironic.

It was a muted surprise to Kakkhan, however, when the beginnings of belief and trust dawned on his past self's face. He was slightly confused in fact, but carefully hid that behind his mask along with his other emotions. But he was not prepared for when Gohan opened his mouth and out came—

"Will you tell me your past?" he asked in a whisper.

Kakkhan considered the question a bit before he answered, "I will if you want me to."

It was Gohan's turn to drop his eyes yet again and return them to Kakkhan's steady gaze once more.

"I don't think so, not right now."

Kakkhan nodded, his onyx eyes disappearing behind his eyelids for a split-second. "Then I won't tell you—now."

Gohan nodded himself, and the Silence akuma tightened Its grip once more over the rapidly beating hearts of one halfbreed and one immortal. It, the akuma, had only had Its hold over the duo for a few moments when Gohan looked over at Kakkhan again. What he saw shocked him beyond measure.

For Kakkhan was gone. Vanished. Had disappeared into thin air, without a trace.


	21. An Act of Mercy

Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, the unfamiliar languages, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

CHAPTER DEDICATION: To **supersaiyaman**, who reviewed almost ALL of the chapters of **Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior** in a single sitting. Or two. Thanks **supersaiyaman**! /Bows deeply/

:#:#:#:

Blah = Laniin, untranslated

[**_Blah_**] = Laniin, translated

:#:#:#:

Chapter Twenty-one: An Act of Mercy

:#:#:#:

Kakkhan floated high in the sky. His clothes rippled as a breeze flew by him, his hair sweeping back from his stony black eyes in accompaniment. Those black eyes, darker than the darkest night, looked sightlessly down at the ruined world laid out before him, thinking about what had just transpired. If a person had been looking at Kakkhan from the ground, he or she would have thought Kakkhan was angel without wings, surveying the world without hope. Of course, no one was around, and so a great opportunity to make Kakkhan look more supernatural than he is, was lost.

All of a sudden Kakkhan moved his head as he heard something. He listened to the sound for a while (whether the sound was real or in mind-speech the authoress doesn't know), before he dived down to Earth. His green gi and his hair whipped now in the gale caused by his body; his rank earrings streamlined themselves to decrease wind resistance; his barbell shrank so Kakkhan would not have to bite down on it so much as he dived; and his armband tightened for the same purpose as the earrings. However, the armband did not tighten so much so as not to cut off it's wearer's circulation.

Too used to these minor adjustments, Kakkhan paid them no heed. He instead kept his eyes on the rapidly approaching ground below. Kakkhan got closer and closer, and closer again. Too close for comfort, at the very last moment, Kakkhan pulled sharply out of his dive and landed as gently as a bird on a lone fencepost sticking up bravely from its crushed surroundings. From there he watched invisibly as a tiny group of scraggly humans toting small knapsacks fled from the city.

The humans were a group of three adults and six children. Two of the children, Kakkhan decided, were orphans. They looked nothing like the adults in the group and something else. They both had the look of having lost a parent, even though one be only five years old. The other one was a teenager, a blonde girl, and her intelligent blue eyes were exhausted, haunted by images Kakkhan did not want to see.

The teenager was at the back of the pack, so the adults, the other orphan, and other four children had already passed by Kakkhan without seeing him. Kakkhan prepared himself to see into the teenager's eyes and view the suffering in them, but was distracted by a familiar leering voice whispering in his mind.

_   
'Do what she asks, Legendary Lord. It is her time. Leave the other kid alone, though. He still needs to make his journey in Life.'   
_

Kakkhan turned his head slightly and nodded at Yoki beside him. Yoko was nowhere to be seen, but Yoki was perfectly relaxed, leaning one elbow on solid air. Kakkhan turned back to the teenager, who was just about to pass.

She glanced up at him and did a double take, taking in his martial arts clothes. Hope bloomed in her blue eyes and she dropped the pitifully small bag she was carrying on her back. She brought her hands together in a begging position and dropped to one knee, keeping her eyes on Kakkhan's face.

"Please. Kill me. I've had enough. Just, just kill me, please," she pleaded, her hopeful eyes never alighting from Kakkhan's face. Kakkhan wondered how she could see him when he was supposed to be invisible, but attributed it to the casually lounging Horseman beside him. Yoki, actually, was looking at Kakkhan with an eyebrow raised, as if daring the immortal to refuse. Kakkhan raised an eyebrow to himself and returned his gaze to the kneeling human in front of him.

All of this had taken but a breath, so it was not much longer after the girl's request that Kakkhan decided to do as he was told/asked. It was not a good idea to mess with Fate's dealings, and Her ties were very obviously bound tight around this girl.

Kakkhan graciously inclined his head and said, "As you wish."

Gratitude leapt in bounds upon the blonde girl's face as she leapt up off the dusty ground and spread her arms out wide. She stepped back away from Kakkhan's valiant fencepost and closed her eyes, not caring how Kakkhan disposed of her, as long as she died. Kakkhan took another peek at Yoki, who was looking steadily at him, and steeled himself. It was an act of mercy, he told himself, but knew that the life he was about to cut short should not be. Still, Yoki had told him to kill her, and the Grim Reaper knew all about Death.

Kakkhan raised his arm, his hand flat, and released the smallest bit of energy he could use that would end the girl's life.

The energy hit the girl and she crumpled. Kakkhan stared at her unmoving body, feeling like he had just disfigured something beautiful. Yoki walked over to the girl and inspected her, leaning on his scythe. He remarked offhandedly to Kakkhan, _'Not bad, Legendary Lord. You _do_ have feelings. I'd have never known with that mask you have on. You know that was an act of mercy you just committed, right? Only a person with feelings, with compassion, would do something like that. Now, don't look at me like that, Legendary Lord._ _Compassion is _not_ a weakness, it's a strength. Just vastly underrated._

'Compassion is actually a very desirable thing to have,' Yoki continued._ 'Thank the gods that you have it. Not that many people do, human, akuma, or otherwise, and that's a sad thing. _I_ have compassion, but only because this is my job and it forces me to be. Death _is_ a form of compassion, as you just saw. Otherwise, I'd probably still be a rampaging Horseman and wreaking havoc everywhere. But anyway, we're not here to talk about that. We're here to see that compassion does _not_ make someone weak, and that you should practice it. This is a lesson well earned, Legendary Lord, and it will serve you well in the future. The _long_ future. Just be careful how you distribute it, for if you use that compassion and mercy for the wrong person, you may find yourself the worse for it.'_

Yoki took a breath, while Kakkhan looked at him, feeling shocked. It wasn't everyday you got a speech on compassion and mercy from the Death Bringer. It was outright ironic, actually, and Kakkhan would have laughed inside if not for the gravity of the situation.

Sensing that the Legendary Lord had registered his lecture, Yoki smiled ominously at Kakkhan and tipped his head. _'Good day to you, Legendary Lord.' _Kakkhan nodded his thanks for the speech and in goodbye.

He turned back to the girl just in time to see her spirit finish its drain out of its temporary container. He no longer felt Yoki's sinister [presence] beside him, but instead behind the spirit of the girl. Kakkhan turned his eyes to meet the ghostly blue ones of the girl's spirit, who smiled at him gratefully in thanks. Kakkhan bowed his head in return, feeling better about what he had done, and jumped from his fencepost into the skies above.

Never would he forget how much an act of mercy could mean so much, now that he had learned its worth.

:#:#:#:

Kakkhan arrived back at Ina City to see Gohan officially and effectively panicking. Apparently, Kakkhan disappearing so quickly and silently like that had caused the end of the world for Gohan, and so the demi-Saiyan was frantically running back and forth in all directions, looking for Kakkhan and calling out for him. Kakkhan wondered why Gohan hadn't just sensed his ki or his [presence], but then remembered, for the first time in, truthfully, years, about his ki damper and his barbell. Kakkhan clicked his barbell against his teeth in annoyance at himself, then stepped out into Gohan's sight.

Gohan immediately stopped running. Kakkhan looked at him, smirked fleetingly again, and took off. Gohan followed, not trusting Kakkhan not to leave him alone. Kakkhan, aware of this, kept his pace reasonable enough for Gohan to follow. It was time to get a proper bed in a clean place, and Kakkhan knew just where to go, having gone there in this timeline beforehand.

The duo stopped to watch the last of the sunset. At this time, they felt at peace with one another, and with Life, both appreciating the beauty of Nature at her best. Finally though, it was dark, and Kakkhan made the rest of the way to the place he had in mind, making sure Gohan was always by his side.

:#:#:#:

When Kakkhan and Gohan woke up in Kami's Lookout the next morning, understandably, they both thought that what each had gone through had just been a dream. Then they looked at each other and decided very quickly that nope, it wasn't a dream. Gohan remembered, his chest aching, the deaths of his mother, his second mother Bulma, and the brother he would never have, Trunks. Kakkhan remembered the lesson of mercy he'd learned. They looked at each other, remembering, and picked up where they had left off.

"So Kakkhan, will you tell me your past now?" Gohan asked, trying to gauge a reaction out of Kakkhan by the request.

Kakkhan just looked at Gohan. Gohan looked back, matching stare for stare with Kakkhan. Kakkhan could see that Gohan actually wanted to know about Kakkhan's past now, but he decided to further analyze the situation before he let his past counterpart in.

"Let me ask _you_ a question for once, Son Gohan. Are you going to stay here in this world, or will you come into the future with me?" Kakkhan asked, keeping his face devoid of any emotion. It was Gohan's decision, this, and Gohan's decision alone. Kakkhan couldn't make it for him. Although, knowing Gohan as well was he did (which was very well indeed), Kakkhan estimated that Gohan would want to get out of this world with its many bad memories and few good ones. Still, Kakkhan waited. Gohan could always change his mind.

Gohan, a little more used to Kakkhan's bluntness by that time, was a little less taken aback than the first time Kakkhan had been so blunt. He was just now taken aback by the question itself.

He recovered quickly, however, and furrowed his forehead. With a brief frown, he answered, "I don't know. I'll have to think about that."

Kakkhan nodded his approval of the answer and reached for his past counterpart. He dragged the other one past his mental barriers of thin fire and thrust Gohan into his mind. He called for the very southwestern part of his mind, where his memories were stored, and it soon slid into view. He flicked open the first memory of his life, at a year old, and let the slide show begin.

Gohan started as he was suddenly seized mentally. He attempted to escape before he realized that it was Kakkhan who had taken a hold of him, then relaxed. Gohan was propelled along past thin walls of fire and stepped into an environment full of darkness. Gohan had no time to contemplate the inside of Kakkhan's mind, however. For the darkness unexpectedly lit up with a vision, a vision familiar to Gohan, for it was one of his own memories. Gohan watched, entranced, as Kakkhan's life from one to two years old played out in front of him, so familiar and yet so strange. These memories, seen this way, revealed new things about Gohan and about Kakkhan that Gohan had never known before. So from the memories from ages one to two, Gohan gleaned new revelations about both himself and Kakkhan.

But once they hit age two, Gohan's forehead furrowed again in confusion. He didn't recognize these memories, for they were so different than his own in every aspect. He saw Janden come, take the child that Kakkhan had been, and the [cleaning]. He saw Kakkhan's life, from the first days on Giendon to the last days in the original timeline after the Cell Games. From there Kakkhan tapered off, not wanting Gohan to know that he'd spent the entire time after that watching Gohan. But Gohan looked at Kakkhan, sensing that there was more to Kakkhan's memories than he was being shown, and Kakkhan forged ahead.

Gohan kept watching as Kakkhan traveled through Time again. Those times, though, Kakkhan stayed for longer than just a few hours. He stayed for days, weeks, even a month at one time, but always returned to catch Gohan's every thought. Gohan found himself blushing at times when Kakkhan caught him doing something he shouldn't be, but Kakkhan's thoughts in the memories always surprised him. It was never, _"Ah! Naughty!" _or something along the lines of that. It was always something like, _"All right, Gohan. Show 'em what you got," _as in one instance when Gohan was playing with Goku's Power Pole and he bonked his father on the head. Then Gohan had winced, but Kakkhan's unusual thought enabled Gohan to watch on.

By the time that Gohan finished, he knew everything about Kakkhan. Everything. It made Gohan feel very comfortable around Kakkhan, but he still didn't know if Kakkhan would still be comfortable around him.

Gohan turned to Kakkhan, expecting…what, he didn't know. He did know that he hadn't expected Kakkhan to be facing him outright nor had he expected Kakkhan to demand, _'Now show me _your_ memories and thoughts. I need to know you as well as you know me, even if I already know how your life was like.'_

Yet Kakkhan did both of these things, again taking Gohan off balance. To his credit, Gohan was actually getting used to being off balance around Kakkhan. Still, Gohan glowered at Kakkhan. Kakkhan raised an eyebrow in question, to which Gohan said, _'Stop catching me off guard! It's getting annoying.'_

In answer, Kakkhan simply smirked at Gohan, who knew now that it translated into a grin by Giendonese standards. Gohan, instead of scrunching his face into a more hurt expression, grinned back, delighted that he was able to make Kakkhan grin after all the horrible (and not so horrible) things in the immortal's life. The two stood there smirking, or grinning, at each other, before they moved on.

The duo then set out for Gohan's mind and his memories, sharing their lives with each other and essentially their very souls. This partaking of memories gave the two not only a better understanding of each other, but also a bond, one that was unbreakable. This bond would see Gohan and Kakkhan through their lives and would support them in times of despair, when all seemed lost, and in times of peace, when everything was at hand. However, this bond was more than a bond of friends, or brothers. This was a bond with yourself.

For Kakkhan was Gohan, and Gohan was Kakkhan. Yet they were separate entities, complete opposites of each other. Kakkhan was unemotional, a pure Saiyan, and acted like it. Gohan wore his heart on his sleeve, was a halfbreed, and acted human. Kakkhan had a dark mind and a heart of light. Gohan had a mind full of light and a heart of darkness. Kakkhan was immortal, a person of high places in other places. Gohan was mortal, and not generally known outside of Earth. He wasn't even known on Earth, for that matter. Yet it did not matter with these two.

They didn't care that Kakkhan was practically royalty in the Akuma Dimension, nor that Gohan was just as low as everybody else on his own Earth. They didn't care that Kakkhan was known, somewhat, for his exploits, and that Gohan was not. They only cared that the other person had now become the other half of himself, half his soul. They were closer than twins, and yet they were as separate as two estranged brothers. Fate had truly done a paradoxical masterpiece when She had laid out Her diabolical plans for these two. She knew it too, and She sat in Her well-used workshop, admiring Her paradox, and the two long Strings of Life She held in Her hands. One String was black, with a shimmering of white over it. The other String was white, with an aura of black. Both were still attached to their spools, which meant that Fate still had to decide when they'd end their lives. _If_ they ended their lives. Fate was known to be contrary. Especially as the person one of the Strings referred to was supposed to be mortal.

But Fate wasn't telling anyone of Her plans. She never did. And Kakkhan and Gohan definitely didn't want to know.

:#:#:#:

Kakkhan withdrew from Gohan's head and went back to his own. He turned his back on his core of light again and faced the outside, where Gohan was. Gohan opened his own eyes, the unseen pupils dilating in the bright light that was, somehow, much dimmer than the light in his own mind. Gohan couldn't believe it, but after going through Kakkhan's memories, Gohan could actually control his own mind. He had learned much from Kakkhan's memories, so much that he could speak Laniin as fluently as any Laniin or Giendonese person. It was entirely too weird, but it somehow made sense to Gohan, as nothing else in his life did. Gohan had no doubt that Kakkhan had taken something from Gohan's memories too, but what, Gohan couldn't possibly fathom. He knew something of what Kakkhan had already obtained from seeing his life, but from his memories, that was a different thing. But now was not the time to be thinking about what Kakkhan could have gotten from Gohan's memories. Now was the time for a bit of talk.

Kakkhan opened up the floor with, "So, Gohan. I think by now that you've had enough time to think about my question from earlier. Are you coming to the future timeline with me or not?" He asked this with a raised eyebrow, as if daring Gohan to refuse to answer the question this time, a dare that Gohan chose not to take.

Instead Gohan retorted, "You know I'm going to. There are too many bad memories here for me, and besides, I need a second chance, start my life over. I can't do that here with skeletons still grappling at me, holding me back. As long as I don't live with my future family, Mom and Dad specifically, for a while, at least, until I get used to the future, then I can do that. But, I do want to be with my future family, especially Goten. I just don't want to be with them until I have my own life." Gohan looked helplessly at Kakkhan, who had a faint look of understanding on his face. Kakkhan nodded, then changed the subject.

"We'll have to do a bit of planning on _how_ we're going to get you introduced to your future family and also explain _why_ we look so alike. Maybe suggest we're twins? We practically are, anyway."

Gohan raised an eyebrow at that, looking so much like Kakkhan at the moment that Kakkhan had to hide a Giendonese smile (1). "That's a good idea. I just hope we aren't expected to dress the same." Kakkhan truly Giendonese smiled then, again to the delight of Gohan. The self-proclaimed twins laid out more plans for Earth after that, moving from how introduced to how long before introduced, deciding on a year, when both Kakkhan and Gohan would be settled. Gohan even tentatively brought up the subject of Tyeler and if she would still be with them in the future.

Kakkhan had to sit back and think about that. No doubt Tyeler would be a great friend to have, but she would have to reconcile to the idea that Kakkhan wouldn't go back to Giendon. Not to mention that Tyeler still had ties to the home planet and the Laniins, and so she could contact the Laniins any day and tell them to pick him up. This would be treason to Kakkhan, but Tyeler would do it to make sure that Kakkhan didn't commit the greater treason to Giendon. Kakkhan didn't want to be brainwashed again, or anymore than he already had. Kakkhan didn't know when he had become so disillusioned about Giendon and his Laniin family, but he knew it had been for a while. But by any means, Tyeler would not be an auspicious friend to Kakkhan and Gohan's plans, and so she would have to go. Kakkhan found himself shrinking from the callousness of the thought, but even he had to admit that the statement was accurate.

Gohan, watching the play of slight emotions across Kakkhan's seemingly unemotional face, chose wisely to stay silent while his twin thought. His twin. Gohan had no trouble thinking of Kakkhan as his twin now, even though they were hardly that in blood. Especially since Kakkhan had had his DNA altered to make him a pure Saiyan instead of just a halfbreed. Gohan didn't have any jealousy for Kakkhan, though. He knew, both from personal experience and Kakkhan's memories, that being a pure Saiyan wasn't all that. Neither was being a pure human, this concept gained through Gohan's own past, and Gohan was perfectly happy as a hybrid. Sure, Gohan would doubt himself about being a hybrid, but Gohan was sure it would be nothing drastic. As long as Kakkhan was around, nothing would be drastic.

Finally, Kakkhan's octave-deeper-than-normal voice came into the air. It was thoughtful, nevertheless bringing Gohan out of his own reverie. Kakkhan was like that. "I don't think that Tyeler should be with us. She would take to you quite quickly, I'm sure, but she wouldn't like that I'm not going back to Giendon. She might even make the Laniins come and take _me_ to Giendon. Who knows? Tyeler might wrangle you too in on the act, and you would be brainwashed as well. I couldn't abide with myself if that happened, brainwashed again or not, so I think I'd better return Tyeler to Giendon."

Gohan nodded his agreement. A companionable silence fell over them, the Silence akuma being in a better mood than yesterday, as each contemplated a further course of action for the future. Suddenly both Gohan and Kakkhan came out with,

"I think we need a mind link—"

"We should establish a telepathic bond—"

The counterparts looked at each other, and burst into laughter. Gohan was laughing outright, while Kakkhan was laughing inwardly, as per his style. Suddenly two enormous growls of impatience erupted from a certain region of the abdomen. Kakkhan and Gohan looked down at their rumbling stomachs, and at each other, and said simultaneously, "Raiding time."

This sent them into another fit of laughter. Finally they calmed down when Kakkhan extracted his capsule refill refrigerator and uncapsulated it. They each got their food and started feasting at top Saiyan speed, Gohan eating with no hesitations this time. This meal would go on for hours, Gohan and Kakkhan creating their mind link as they went. For the rest of the day, they did nothing but plan, lounge, eat, or get prepared for the imminent trip to the future. It was tomorrow that the events of Fate would start, but today was not tomorrow. Not just yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) What I mean by a Giendonese smile, in case you don't get it, is actually a small smirk by an outsider's standards. I'm going to be using this kind of expression in the future, so make sure you understand what I mean. I'll be reminding you of this, so if you don't remember, never fear, I'm here for you!


	22. To the Future, and Beyond

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, the unfamiliar languages, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

* * *

_**Blah:** _Laniin, untranslated

**_Blah:_** Laniin, translated

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Two: To the Future, and Beyond

* * *

The next day dawned bright and clear on the world. At least for those on Earth. On Kami's Lookout, there had been activity for two whole hours before the sun even thought about waking up on this side of the world. There always was activity before the sun on the Lookout. But this time it was by two people who didn't belong there.

Kakkhan tossed an empty capsule to Gohan, who filled it with miscellaneous items they would need in the future. Kakkhan rechecked his refill refrigerator and money capsules, as well as the capsule house that Gohan had retrieved from the ruins of Capsule Corps. Clothes were shaken out and stuffed into capsules, again rescued from Capsule Corps, and books and other remains of Gohan's life were being taken with them. One such thing was his father's infamous Power Pole, the one important item that Goku had left him while on his deathbed. Gohan affectionately fondled the Pole before he put it into the capsule with other miscellaneous items. Kakkhan eyed him impartially while Gohan did this, but made no comment. He never did.

Seven minutes and half after that, the packing was done. Finished. Consummated. Nothing more to do in that area. Gohan put his hands on his hips and looked around at their handiwork, while Kakkhan just lolled on one of the couches in the room. He watched Gohan examine the not-so-many capsules on the round table, the things inspected and discarded, and the morning's pile of dirty plates pleading to be washed. It was with distaste that the both of them looked at the plates, and sighs as Gohan enlisted Kakkhan's help for drying.

Four minutes later, the god of Time saw Kakkhan speeding around the room, stacking up all the discarded things into one corner. Gohan was collecting all the capsules into their separate boxes, relabeling them for the contents they really contained. It was in this order that everything was done at last, two hours, eighteen minutes, and thirty-six seconds after the Paradoxes had woken up and realized that tomorrow had come at last.

Kakkhan led Gohan to the outside of the Lookout, the plaza where the Z-senshi of both timelines normally gathered. He strode to a specific spot in the tiles and halted, already concentrating on the Warphole. Gohan stood by, ready to help Kakkhan if he needed it. Somehow, Gohan didn't think so, but one never knew.

Kakkhan's coordinates on the other side of Time found, Kakkhan moved the other-side coordinates around so that they would end up in a different place than Kami's Lookout in the future timeline. Finished with the coordinates (the Warphole would end in a meadow not far away from Blue Star City), Kakkhan waved his hand through the air, his ki shimmering in his hand's wake. The ki worked through the air to create a rip in space and Time, as it was ordered to do by Kakkhan. Soon the Paradoxes faced a tunnel floating in midair, its sparkling darkness twinkling cheerfully at them. Gohan looked into the tunnel with wonder. No matter that he had seen this Warphole before, in Kakkhan's memories. There was a difference between seeing something on a screen and seeing something in person. Most definitely a difference.

Kakkhan nudged Gohan, startling the latter out of his reverie. Gohan Grinned™ sheepishly and stepped into the tunnel. Kakkhan stepped in after him and closed the Warphole securely. Now no mortal, Kami or otherwise, could open the Warphole, let alone sense it. It wouldn't be surprising for a Guardian of the Earth to sense Kakkhan's Warphole, but a mortal wouldn't know the difference. Kakkhan was immensely proud of this, for even Janden's Warpholes left a residue that a mortal could sense, whether or not they actually understood what that residue meant.

Immediately after closing the Warphole, the sparkling darkness turned brighter and different. Kakkhan raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't pay it really any mind. He supposed it had something to do with the fact that Gohan was in with him, it could not. Whatever it was, Kakkhan was merely okay with it. It didn't bother him.

Gohan, however, was staring wide-eyed beyond the Warphole. Warpholes actually allowed the user to see beyond the Warphole, it was just that Kakkhan never bothered. What was there to see? Only black space lit up by stars, galaxies, planets, and comets. So what? Kakkhan saw that everyday on Giendon. But in Time, everything was different. There were no planets here, or even darkness. No clocks reigned here in this plane of existence, nor anything that even resembled Human ideas of Time. No, Time was a dimension colored blue, a light sky-blue that reminded Gohan not of the sky but of advanced machinery instead, as if Time was actually a machine. Gohan could even see what looked like pipes running along parallel to them, over them, and below them. Gohan could see, too, that something transparent surrounded Kakkhan's Warphole, and just barely realized what it was before Kakkhan added his own two cents. He was also looking out beyond the Warphole.

"I believe that we are traveling through one of the pipes of Time as well. Thyme was so gracious to supply us with one of these, wasn't It?" (1)

Kakkhan said rather than asked. Still, Gohan nodded, his awe evident on his face. Kakkhan Giendonese smiled (2) at Gohan's face. He allowed Gohan one more second of Time-gazing before he tugged Gohan away from the sparkling walls. Gohan smiled another sheepish Grin™, to which Kakkhan simply shook his head. Gohan shrugged as he turned back to watching Time as it flew past. The pipe, which Kakkhan had not had on his first journey through Time, was the one moving the Warphole through this dimension, not Kakkhan. Kakkhan and Gohan didn't need to walk in order to advance the Warphole this time, for Thyme really wasn't used to visitors in Its own dimension, and so It was doing the dirty work for Kakkhan quite willingly.

Kakkhan had gotten to know the Force of Time quite well during his travels back and forth between his timeline and Gohan's timeline. This was the last visit through Time in this direction, Kakkhan mentally assured the Force of Time, but Kakkhan would not guarantee that he would stop traveling through the dimension. It was too fun to give up. Kakkhan heard a sigh from some direction or other in his head, and knew that Thyme had heard.

He smirked.

Soon, Thyme dropped them off at their designation on the other side. Kakkhan strode to the front of the Warphole, which did not advance now because they had reached their designation. He placed a hand on the wall before him and spread his ki, creating another rip in space. Again, Gohan went out first, Kakkhan following and closing the Warphole behind him. Kakkhan then collected his ki from the Time pipe and from the Kami's Lookout in the past timeline and pooled it into his already vast reserves. Done, Kakkhan looked with Gohan at his surroundings.

They were in a meadow.

Blinking, Kakkhan mentally kicked himself in the head. Of course they were in a meadow. He just hadn't thought it would be such a _meadow_. Kilometers and kilometers of wild grasses spread everywhere, with the occasional tree clumps dotted here and there. There were five trees right behind Kakkhan and Gohan, all offering their shade to the two strangers who had suddenly literally appeared out of thin air. The Paradoxes looked at the trees, beyond at the herd of wild horses migrating to another grazing area, and back out at the expanse of grass gazing back nonchalantly at them. They looked at each other, sighed, and got ready to do some more work.

Ten kilometers of flying later, Kakkhan and Gohan could finally see the outskirts of the nearest town. Kakkhan kept it quiet that it was Blue Star City, so as not to traumatize Gohan too much before they arrived. He also kept quiet the fact that Blue Star City was also the city closest to the site of the Cell Games. He did this because he wanted Gohan to see the city as it was, full of life, without any of the scars it had in the past timeline. He wanted Gohan to see how different the future truly was, all because Mirai Kakkhan had visited.

They landed on the far outskirts of the city, out of sight of the roads and highways leading towards it. Gohan was looking around, trying to sense something familiar about where they were. This was the same broad area in which Gohan had lived in the past timeline; Kakkhan had assured him of that. Gohan had had some misgivings about that, but Kakkhan had just pushed on and Gohan hadn't mentioned his doubts.

From their place, the Paradoxes walked the rest of the journey to the city. Once in the city, they looked around at all the sites. Kakkhan pointed out to Gohan the various eating places where they could go if they didn't feel like eating at home. They toured the other shops, agreed on general hangout places, and also visited landmark places. They also took looks at the apartment places, condominiums, and small houses for a place to live. After all, the capsule house was only going to be temporary, and they _did_ need a place to live. Gohan had grown accustomed to living in the city after so long in the Dark Gemini's shadows, and Kakkhan preferred the bustling city to the quiet countryside, even though he did like nature. The two were in agreement on this plan, like they were on many other aspects. It was spooky the things they both agreed on, like they really were twins. It all resulted from the little heart-to-heart Kakkhan had started, and it was going well. Spookily well.

Gohan was looking around at his surroundings from their momentary seats on a fountain when he started. He had recognized something in the city from the past timeline, and he turned to Kakkhan with huge questioning eyes.

"Hey Kakkhan? What city is this?" he asked. Kakkhan raised his eyebrows and said in return,

"Don't you recognize it? It's Blue Star City. I would have thought that distinctive clock tower over there would have tipped you off right away."

Gohan gaped at how alive the place was. He jerked his head back to Kakkhan, replayed his last statement, and told him, "Oh, the clock tower _was_ the thing that tipped me off. It just looked so different, so _happy_, that I had to double-check." Kakkhan nodded agreement as Gohan returned to the city, this time in an entirely different light. He found that he liked this version better, and Kakkhan knew it.

After gazing around some more, Kakkhan stood up and stretched. Gohan looked at him, not knowing what he was doing. He asked, "What are you doing? It's not the end of the day yet."

Kakkhan looked at him and wondered where Gohan's brain had gone. "Gohan, we have to get started on looking for our jobs. I mean, we're going to need to support ourselves, you know."

"What about the unlimited money bags you have from Giendon? I thought we were going to live off of those." Gohan said, still confused.

"We are. We're just going to earn some extra money. You can never be _too_ cautious when dealing with money." Kakkhan said, a wry Giendonese smile twisting his face. Gohan nodded clear understanding.

"We're also going to have to socialize. We don't want to earn the reputation of being recluses." Gohan said, smirking at Kakkhan, who he knew was famous for his love of privacy. Kakkhan scowled back, knowing equally as well that Gohan loved to get out of his room and do social things. It was actually quite weird, when you thought about how Gohan hadn't exactly had the time to socialize, he being with the Dark Androids for four years, and how Kakkhan was always in the middle of everything, social or otherwise. They were truly, as they were going to be known as, the Paradoxes, in more ways than one.

Kakkhan had to nod, however begrudgingly, to Gohan's statement. They had already spent half the day re-familiarizing themselves with Blue Star City, so they extended their break and had lunch out of their capsules. They ignored all the people that stared at them as they ate, but they did eat at a decidedly less Saiyanly pace than they usually did. They did care what society thought, just not about how much they ate. They _did_ have to fill their stomachs, after all.

For the rest of the day, they sought out potential jobs. Blue Star City was only one city out of hundreds they could possibly live in, so there really wasn't a rush to get a job and settle in. True, Blue Star City _was_ the city closest to West City, but they were using that for a starting point, not a true home.

By the time the sun was starting to set, Gohan had his sight set on three potential jobs. One job was as a medical examiner (preferably for Blue Star's CSI team), another was as a chemical scientist's assistant, and the third job as an aide to a scatterbrained professor at University of Blue Star. Gohan actually wanted to be either the first or third job, but he would be okay if he was the chemical scientist's assistant. He really didn't care. All the jobs would require that Gohan go to school and get qualification, even the professor one, but Gohan was fine with that. He _did_ want to go to school, even if he breezed through the courses easily enough. It would be worth the boredom for the liveliness of the jobs.

Kakkhan had five jobs in mind. One, as a troubleshooter, saving companies in dire need of help or something like that, or two, as a computer scientist/mechanic. Three was as an Info Desk Intern (until he asserted himself as a very knowledgeable person at least) at one of the Internet providers, GlobalNet™, and four as an employee at the Blue Star Main Library. Five was Kakkhan's favorite besides one and two, and it was the most dangerous. He could become part of the Blue Star City Underworld, working as an invisible informant to the Blue Star Police Departments and putting away known criminals. Kakkhan actually liked the idea of working behind the scenes and being the unknown doom of many criminals walking the streets of Blue Star. Perhaps he would even be the computer scientist/mechanic _and _an informant. Kakkhan would keep it in mind.

Kakkhan would also have to go to college and get his Master's Degree of Science to be a computer scientist, but he could do that while being the employee for the Library. Kakkhan decided to check out the colleges around Blue Star and see which ones would help him, if this city were chosen as their place of residence.

They trooped back into the meadow, not as far away from Blue Star this time, and set up their headquarters. The capsule house ended up being placed high up in a clump of trees, where it would not be noticed by stray campers looking for shade. The house was in a tree for the fact that both Kakkhan and Gohan liked to be above ground a little too much. This was gained from restless lifestyles and forever traveling, besides being used to being in the air from so much flying, fighting, and even thinking, in Kakkhan's case. And so it was constructed.

Tyeler was still packed away in her little capsule, and it was a good thing that she was not awake while still packed. For if she had, she would have been horrified and hurt by Kakkhan's behavior. But, she wasn't, and a very severe worst-case scenario was discreetly avoided.

The next day, Kakkhan and Gohan left the capsule house in the tree and set out for Ina City. This Gohan was aware of, as it was the city in which he and the Dark Androids had had their last fight. But he wasn't disappointed in the change in Ina City either. If possible, it was even busier than Blue Star City and had more opportunities for jobs. Sadly, it was a little lacking in the quality of condos and apartments, but had several nice neighborhoods for permanent homes. The shops were not so bad either, but in comparison with Blue Star, Ina City was a little less than satisfactory.

The third day was spent touring Orange Star City. Orange Star City had originally been Quebenia City, but the governor had changed the name to the surprising approval of the citizens to Orange Star. Orange Star City was bigger and more sophisticated than Blue Star City, but Gohan found that there was a lot more posh here than he liked. Kakkhan viewed Orange Star with a critical eye, as well, even if the schools were good and obviously made for the rich. He didn't like it as much either.

Four more days were spent viewing other cities and towns, but the ultimate decision was, had always been, Blue Star City. Blue Star was a friendly community, had good condos/houses, and was pretty sophisticated on its own. It was less distinguished than Orange Star City, perhaps, but it overall fit the Paradoxes far better than any city they had seen afterwards. Especially if a person wanted to socialize. Blue Star City was not a wild city, unlike Orange Star, but it was definitely a place to go if one wanted to "just chill."

The city decided, now the Paradoxes just needed to move in.

And they did, with style.

It was only a few weeks later that Kakkhan and Gohan were settled into their brand new home, with three bedrooms, three baths, a den, a living room, several lofts, a sufficiently large kitchen, a great view of central Blue Star, and even a bit of space left over. The lofts were bonuses and planned to serve as Kakkhan's office, Gohan's office, and an entertainment center, respectively. There was even an attic, which Gohan and Kakkhan thought to convert into the portable G-dome that Kakkhan carried around. Kakkhan would have to retrieve it from Tyeler first, however, but he had an idea about that. Right now, though, Kakkhan didn't have the time. They first had to unpack and buy—gasp!—_furniture_.

All in all, the Paradoxes' first house was a pretty spacey one. And for a good reason. It wasn't every day that two Saiyans were living alone with each other, and both needed their space or there would be trouble. Luckily, though, the house provided the room, and all was cool. They had not bought a condo or an apartment because of this need for space, but luckily they had not had to look far for this house. It was right smack dab in the middle of Blue Star City, with a bonus of accessibility that would serve handy in the future.

Next, the jobs. Gohan landed an opening at the Blue Star University of Science and Technology while Kakkhan went the other direction and applied for the Main Library job. He got it easily, even holding back a little so as not to seem too knowledgeable, at least until he actually got there. He was holding off on actually entering the program for two months, however, just until he finished putting all of his life behind him. Kakkhan was going to take two months fixing up his home and transferring all of his Giendonese things from the capsules they were in to his share of the residence, deciding what things were going to stay and what was not.

He was also planning to start his own nonprofit-website on the Internet, one that he hoped was going to be fairly popular in time. If not, eh. It wouldn't bother him. Kakkhan was just doing the website to be doing _something_ at least. He would have the time. Kakkhan was planning on holding off on actually entering the college that he'd found for the computer scientist career, University of Blue Star, for a year, just until everything was settled in, at least.

Two months was also the amount of time Gohan had before his term started at BSU, and this time was going to be used to get Gohan ready for BSU and to help Kakkhan with the Giendonese business. Since prepping Gohan for BSU was quicker, they planned to do that first, then start on the Giendonese artifacts. This was done in short order, only five days. The house was also equipped with its furniture, the memoirs of the past timeline, and the closets in Gohan's bedroom filled with his clothes and other junk as Gohan saw fit.

The Paradoxes also decorated their individual rooms with their own personal stuff, one sometimes borrowing something from the other to find a new home in his room. One such incident was when Kakkhan saw Gohan's extensive book collection. He dug out his bookcase and graciously gave it to Gohan, filling the shelves with not only his now-few Giendonese studies but also Gohan's ridiculously advanced Earthling studies as well. This bookcase proudly lined the extra space, which was converted into a personal library with the addition of more bookcases bought to accompany it.

But after it was finished, Kakkhan could no longer hold it off. It was time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) Thyme is a neutral Force, unlike Fate, who is female, and Destiny, who's male. Thyme is also the name of the god of Time; I just switched it around so that both you and I could distinguish the god from the dimension. Basically Thyme is the god and Time is the dimension.
> 
> (2) OK, from now on, whenever Kakkhan smiles, it's a Giendonese smile and actually a smirk. All right? Is that cool? I'm getting tired of writing "he Giendonese smiled" all the time. I will still write "a Giendonese smile", though. Be warned!


	23. The Last Step

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, the unfamiliar languages, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

* * *

**_Blah_** Laniin, translated

* * *

Chapter Twenty-third: The Last Step

* * *

The next day, with only two weeks more of the two-month break to go, Kakkhan finally turned his attention to Tyeler. He had already set up the Giendonese things he had there were not in Tyeler, but these were few compared to the majority that Tyeler held. The problem was that Tyeler had to be awakened in order for Kakkhan to retrieve his things, but Kakkhan thought he could solve that.

He got to work, Gohan right beside him. First, he took the capsule apart. He carefully looked through it for the shrunken computer chip that was Tyeler. It would not hurt Tyeler or even interrupt her doze to be removed from the room capsule. Kakkhan hadn't done this before, but he had a good memory for where things went and was confident things would turn out all right. Still, Gohan helped discreetly by taking the chips Kakkhan took out of the capsule and arranging them chronologically so Kakkhan would have no problems putting the capsule back together again.

Finally, Kakkhan removed the final chip before Tyeler. He held it up in midair, admiring it, before he gave it to Gohan. He looked over as he did and did a double take at all the neat rows Gohan had made with all the different chips.

Gohan looked up at Kakkhan inspecting his rows and Grinned™. Kakkhan commented on his twin's display coolly, an attempt to save face.

"Nice arrangement. Tell me, is there any meaning to any of this organized chaos?"

Gohan just kept grinning. He did point out that the last row of chips was the last ones Kakkhan had just taken out, and that "you'll be able to piece together the capsule in much less time than without this 'organized chaos'," Gohan teased. Kakkhan just shrugged the joke off, for Gohan did have a point there. It probably would have taken Kakkhan hours to put everything back together in the same order, if not in all the right places. In this crusade, Gohan was a lifesaver.

Kakkhan allowed Gohan to hear that last thought as his way of thanks. Gohan simply smiled again. He was now wholly comfortable with Kakkhan enough that he could take such compliments from Kakkhan without so much as a blush.

They returned to the task at hand. Kakkhan reached in gently with his tweezers, as he had during the whole process, and gripped Tyeler's chip, the only foreign chip of the capsule. Tyeler was Laniin-made, not Earthling-based, and her identification bands stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the masses of blue, green, yellow, and red. Kakkhan inched the chip out of its secure hold, little by little, this way and that. This was the precise method he had applied to all the other chips, except for the fact that he was a bit firmer in his handling. Laniin technology was stronger physically than Earthling technology, and it held on to its bearings more securely than did Earthling technology. Such was that that Kakkhan had to be firmer with Tyeler's chip than the Earthling chips.

At last, with a yank Kakkhan had not used with the Earthling chips, the Giendonese chip came free. Immediately it glowed as it adjusted to the new environment, new temperature, and most of all, the new lighting.

Laniin technology was infamous for being so sensitive to the solar energy molecules of any star that it could work while not hooked up or with any of its essentials with just that energy. The problem was that starlight was so fired up with energy molecules and so fleeting on Giendon that once a piece of technology was exposed to the starlight, it would not work with anything else. Hookups would not operate it, accessories guaranteed and proven to help the technology operate did not, and the only thing that even got a response from the technology were telepathic bonds to the technology. Sadly, these were lacking outside of the personal artificial intelligence computer every occupant of the _Tiara_ had, so nothing would work, basically, once the addictive starlight energy got a hold of a piece of Laniin technology.

Kakkhan stared at the chip as the dark purple surface lit up with lavender, a neon red unknown to Humans, and dark forest green lights. Gohan stared at it too, fascinated by all of the colors. Whirring sounds erupted from the chip, a sign that the artificial intelligent computer inside the chip was charged up and ready to go. Kakkhan just placed the chip on the table to join the 50 other chips already waiting. The chip continued to glow and whir as Kakkhan meticulously filled in its place with a small slide of cheritin, a hard substance that was used to forge chips. It looked like a chip for an artificial intelligence computer, but it was in truth only a clone of a chip, and empty. It was colored exactly like Tyeler, complete with the information bands, only it was not glowing.

Kakkhan put the Earthling chips back in, thanking the gods for Gohan and his organized chaos. He never would have remembered, even with his good memory, in which order the chips had been taken out. Sure, they eventually would have been in the right places, like a puzzle, but it would have taken Kakkhan hours, maybe even a day at the most. Gohan was again a lifesaver.

This time Gohan did not hear the thought.

Kakkhan placed the last chip into the capsule, put the capsule's inner cap together, and then slid the final outer cap on. He held the completed capsule in his hands, weighing it without Tyeler's weight. It felt just the same to him, even without the loads of information Tyeler contained. Kakkhan sighed. He had, believe it or not, just gone through one of the darkest hours of his life, removing his best friend from the only place he'd ever get to see her again and setting her aside as if she were merely a thorn taken from his side. Lady Fate truly was wicked.

His time of reflection over, Kakkhan clicked the capsule and threw it in the air. It exploded with a small _boom_ and developed into the room Kakkhan had spent the last G16 years of his life in. Gohan stared about in wonder as Kakkhan got straight to work. Kakkhan tried to ignore the place where Tyeler usually was, her green face working as she conversed with Kakkhan. He failed miserably when he was looking for one of his katanas and Tyeler's oh-so-familiar voice did not ring through his head, asking what he was looking for. Kakkhan missed her terribly, but he put on his most unemotional mask and ruthlessly dived into finishing the job.

Gohan watched Kakkhan go through his belongings. There was truly no emotion on his brother's face now as he stacked more and more books into the "take out" pile. Gohan could only imagine what Kakkhan could be feeling right now, in the room of the planet he most loved but had forsaken for what was the right thing to do. Freedom was the most important right a person could have, even the limited kind. The freedom to think, say, do as one pleased was as natural a right to a person, no matter what race that person was, and was so unalienable that to take that right away was a crime of the worst nature available to the Universe. No matter if opinions were not heard or cared about. As long as someone was allowed to dream and do things of their own will, not actions foisted upon them by beliefs and lectures not their own, they were free.

However, the Laniins had done just that to Kakkhan. They had made him grow up in a society that was not his own, thus taking away his freedom, and were even now attempting to do that still. But Kakkhan had seen in time what the Laniins were doing, and had gotten out of the way. Gohan was not sure what both he and Kakkhan would be in terms of character, personality, etc, if Kakkhan had not stopped and questioned himself and his beloved society. They wouldn't ever find out either, unless by some cruel twist of Fate they did. Gohan would not put it by the mischievous Lady Fate at all.

He looked around again at the various stages of decoration Kakkhan had in his room. He wandered over to a painting of an old-style Japanese bridge with the usual Daoist-resembling brush style. A woman dressed in the dress of ancient Japanese noblewomen was in the middle of walking over the bridge, her head bent just so that her long black hair hid most of her face, except for her nose, mouth, and part of her eyes. An aura of tranquility and grace surrounded the woman, making Gohan feel peaceful himself. Just before Gohan overanalyzed the painting, he felt Kakkhan come and stand by him.

"It'sbeen titled_The Lady of the Bridge_. After a long and difficult day at Giendon, all I had to do was look at that painting and I'd almost immediately calm down. It's funny how paintings, only made of rice paper and oil, can convey so much feeling, especially one of such a simple subject," Kakkhan murmured, his voice a whisper, as if they were in a museum. Gohan just nodded mutely. They surveyed the painting together for a few minutes, then Kakkhan turned away. Gohan continued to look, however, and finally deduced that, even with her peacefulness, and her grace, the lady seemed sad, almost, if not already, lonely.

It was then that Gohan decided to take the painting with them. It would be a little too heartbreaking to see _The Lady of the Bridge _go back to Giendon. Gohan's heart was already cracking at the idea. So while Kakkhan was filing the katana he'd found for the outside, Gohan discreetly took down the painting. He looked for the door and slipped out of it, knowing Kakkhan knew he'd gone away. Gohan just hoped Kakkhan wouldn't be mad. Or disappointed. Or even sad. That would be the worst of all.

Kakkhan pocketed the second of two capsules he'd taken along for his Giendonese things. He looked around for the last time, and frowned. Something seemed to be missing; something that should have been there, but wasn't.

At last Kakkhan simply shrugged. It didn't matter. Kakkhan picked up a glass sculpture he was particularly attached to, cast a final look around, and then left his room for the last time.

He was actually going to miss that room.

More hours went by. Kakkhan redecorated his room, his office loft, and also applied his eclectic taste to mesh with Gohan's simplistic style. It was actually very artsy, the Paradoxes mused when it was all finished. You just had to get over the shock of seeing a luxurious display of weapons in one room and a rapidly filling library in the next, say. The Paradoxes merely shared smirks at the thought.

Now as Kakkhan bypassed Gohan's room to put away several Giendonese things, he realized what had been missing from the Giendonese room earlier. He paused in the hallway, staring at the painting. There was something different about the lady, but not anything drastic. She was still walking, her face was still semi-hidden by her hair, but...

Kakkhan realized that she no longer seemed sad. Now she just exuded loneliness, but with more than a tinge of resignation added, tying in with the serenity and grace themes of the painting. Kakkhan didn't know just why _The Lady of the Bridge_ had changed emotions; the woman had always seemed sad to him, even as she hand hung in Kakkhan's room. Serra had acquired it for him at the age of G12, not all that long ago. It was only two Earthling years, but to Kakkhan it seemed like it had been hanging up on his wall forever. In that forever, Kakkhan had never seen the lady not look sad. This concept threw a new light upon _The Lady of the Bridge_ and evoked some new feelings as well as the old.

Still looking at _The Lady of the Bridge_, Kakkhan said to Gohan, "I don't know what you did, Gohan, but it's a definite improvement over when it was in my room."

Gohan swiveled around to look at Kakkhan. He was relieved to see no anger or sadness on Kakkhan's face, but instead wonder. Gohan answered softly, "I didn't do anything but hang her. It's almost as if it's the _Lady_ herself isn't sad anymore. She did it all." He stretched, suddenly mindful of his thirst and hunger. "I'm going to get something to eat. Want anything?"

"Nah. I'll come get my food when I'm hungry," Kakkhan replied. In fact, he was hungry now, but he reminded himself that he was always hungry.

"You're just saying that so you won't have to fight me over the food," Gohan teased.

Kakkhan chuckled. "You know me well, Gohan. Now go before I do decide to fight you over the food." Gohan left in a scramble of black hair and purple gi, leaving Kakkhan in the doorway of his room. Kakkhan took a final look at the _Lady_ before he muttered incoherently, "It _is_ the _Lady_, Gohan" and moved on to his own room. The lady in the painting seemed to smile, her black hair seeming to move back a bit to reveal the smile. However, the illusion soon faded back into the original scene and the unnatural phenomenon passed.

No one saw.

Kakkhan was busy concentrating on setting his Giendonese clock to Earthling time when a voice invaded his head and almost made him jump out of his skin. He restrained himself and instead turned his head to see Gohan at his shoulder, a concerned look on his face.

'Are you okay, Kakkhan? I called you four times and even knocked, but you didn't respond. Just—are you okay?' Gohan repeated, still speaking in Kakkhan's mind.

Kakkhan just looked at Gohan, communicating clearly that he was not fine. Taking Tyeler out of the capsule and retrieving his things from his room had rattled Kakkhan badly. He had not yet recovered, and he could tell his day wasn't going to be much better. Gohan could see that conclusion ingrained in Kakkhan's eyes as well.

'Kakkhan, get some rest. Take a walk. Do something. But don't do anything related to Giendon. You can do that when you're feeling better,' Gohan said telepathically.

Kakkhan shook his head no. 'I can't. I have to finish this.'

'Why?' 

Gohan's question stopped Kakkhan completely in his tracks. It was only a second, but that was all it took for Gohan. He leaned past Kakkhan and gently, but firmly, took the clock out of Kakkhan's hands. He set it on Kakkhan's desk. He faced a surprised Kakkhan with his hands on his hips and pointed to the bed in the far corner.

'Bed. Now.' Gohan ordered.

Kakkhan nodded mockingly, a small smirk on his face. 'You remind me of Tyeler when you do that,' he commented sarcastically as he got up.

Gohan just pushed Kakkhan in the direction of the bed again. "Good. I'll be your Earthling Tyeler." This statement was said out loud and sounded loud in the silence.

Kakkhan looked around and shook his head. 'We need music or some other noise-making machine in this place. It's too quiet,' he declared. He finally climbed into bed and pulled the covers over his head, slipping into the darkness of his mind as he did so.

Gohan studied the body-shaped lump in Kakkhan's bed with its dark red sheets drawn up securely over its head. It had been a shock to realize that Kakkhan was shaken. Gohan was already used to the concept that Kakkhan was strong and invincible, and he'd known him for barely six, seven weeks. It felt like he'd known Kakkhan all his life, and Kakkhan had known Gohan for all of his lifetime. It was in the way they conversed with each other, acted in each other's presence, and the way they always seemed to know what the other one was thinking. It was as if they'd grown up with each other, they were that close.

Gohan shook his head. This was still all so very weird. Nevertheless, Gohan preferred it this way. He wouldn't trade this arrangement for anything else, no matter how good that anything else may seem. Casting a final look at his twin, he left the room, leaving Kakkhan to meditate himself to sleep.

* * *

Later dudes!

**TheShadowPanther** and Allati, from **AASN**

**AASN; **Writing is what we do for you at **AASN**. Enjoy.


	24. Breaking Ties

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

**Kakkhan: Giendonese Saiyan Warrior**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/Z/GT, but I do own Janden, the Laniins, the other races not including Human, the planet Giendon, a few techniques, the unfamiliar languages, and a handful of other things that are my creation alone.

:-:-:-:

**_Blah_** -Laniin language, translated

:-:-:-:

Chapter Twenty-four: Breaking Ties

:-:-:-:

Hours later, a grumble of a certain organ woke Kakkhan up from his sleep. Kakkhan rubbed his eyes, wiping away the sand in them. He stretched, then curled back up in a ball. He looked sleepily in to the sun-filled darkness of his sheets and wondered what had woken him up. A few seconds later, the immortal got his answer in another growl. Smiling wryly, he ripped the covers from over his head and sat up. He swung his legs over the bed, got up, and slipped out of the room. He allowed the shadows in the hallway to wrap around him and speed him along to the kitchen, as his stomach really was complaining. Shabo-ing was much faster than walking, and much more fun than Instant Transmission.

He arrived in the shadows of the corner farthest from the fridge. Kakkhan mock-scowled at the indignity dealt him, but coalesced anyway. He walked over to the refrigerator and pulled upon the door. Snagging a platter, Kakkhan filled it with many of the delicacies inside the appliance. When he was finished with his selection, he had a mountain of food that was taller than the Himalayas.

Kakkhan set the platter on the table, pulled up a chair, and dived in. His stomach stopped twisting and welcomed the food greedily as it slid down his esophagus. Kakkhan kept eating and his stomach kept digesting, until the food was gone and the stomach felt sleepy. It half-heartedly demanded more food, but Kakkhan just ignored it. He rose from the table and stepped to the sink, where he deposited the wide plate. He turned on the water, washed the plate a little bit, then turned it off.

He turned and went out of the kitchen, keeping a weather eye out for Gohan. He hadn't shown up since Kakkhan had gone to sleep. He wondered where his twin had gone, but decided Gohan would show up sooner or later.

He went back to the living room, the table on which he had dissected the capsule still there, with Tyeler's chip still glowing and humming. Kakkhan laid the Giendonese capsule on the table again and fished in his pants pocket for his tweezers. He set the tweezers on the table next to the capsule. He sat in one of the armchairs he and Gohan had bought, and leaned forward to start on the process of taking apart the capsule again. He followed Gohan's example and lined up the chips in chronological order as he went, until he finally came to Tyeler's substitute chip.

Kakkhan didn't hesitate, didn't think, just plucked out the fake chip and replaced it with the real deal, Tyeler herself. Tyeler's chip went dark as it was lifted away from the sun's light and it stopped whirring as well. But Kakkhan could still feel a difference in the chip, a feeling that the chip had not had before he'd revealed it to the sun. The chip would always have that feeling now. It would never fade, no matter how many hours of darkness outmatched the hours of sunlight the chip had absorbed. The chip would never again work in the darkness or even in the bright artificial lighting of the _Tiara_. Only starlight could make Tyeler come alive, and starlight was a rare and costly item on planet Giendon.

Kakkhan mechanically repacked the rest of the chips back into the capsule, making sure that each chip was chronological. It was a relief to Kakkhan's high-strung nerves when he slid the external capsule back together and his work was done. He looked at the only chip remaining, the fake chip, lying there innocently as if unaware the crime just committed that it represented. Kakkhan looked at it some more, then picked it up and tossed it into the trash bin on the other side of the room.

Kakkhan contemplated his feelings as he took a deep breath. He was tense, his stomach was twisting again, but not from hunger, and he was not going well in the way of emotions. But there was another feeling as well. Kakkhan realized what the feeling was a minute later when a tabby cat leapt lightly onto the windowpane in front of him. His mouth curled into a Giendonese smile as he watched the tabby walk along the length of the pane, then sit and start washing its paws.

Kakkhan looked down at the capsule and his smile reset itself into a grimmer line. It was time to face his duty, the one he'd been shirking for almost three weeks now. With his purely unemotional mask on, Kakkhan picked up the capsule and stood up. He squared his shoulders and walked into the corridor at the back of the living room. He sent a burst of thought to Gohan's doorway where it would hang until Gohan came and received it. Kakkhan walked on, the shadows reaching for him as he creating a Warphole while moving. It was tricky creating one like that, but Kakkhan wasn't about to stop. He knew that if he did, he would never start forward again.

Air split open into glittering darkness before him. Kakkhan stepped into the darkness, closing the Warphole behind him with a single thought. Again, a risky thing, but Kakkhan was taking all kinds of risks now. He had a duty to serve, even if it was not the one he'd thought it would be. After all, what was treason if you didn't officially declare yourself as a traitor? Kakkhan knew treason was dishonest and condemnable, but treason was better done honorably and with the courage to do the right thing, rather than in cowardice and selfishness. Kakkhan detested that kind of treason above all kinds of treason. Instead Kakkhan was going to go and face his treason, make himself a public and known enemy of the Laniins. Kakkhan would never betray the planet Giendon, for all that it was nothing but uninhabitable desert and icy glaciers. Giendon was the planet he had been raised on, and Kakkhan was proud of it. He was not proud of the Laniins, and they were the only ones he was rebelling against. No other races faced his wrath, ever.

Kakkhan strode through his Warphole, his steps sure and confident. He was doing the right thing, and Kakkhan knew it, could feel it. Just as he'd felt it, back home on Earth, looking at a tabby cat washing its paws. Had felt it, ever since he'd taken Tyeler out of the capsule for the first time.

Kakkhan had, for the first time in his life, felt free.

:-:-:-:

Gohan, when he stepped into the house of 351 Marguerite's Hope Street, immediately stopped, and held his breath. He listened for signs of life in the big empty building, from the squeak of a mouse to the snore of an elephant, or a Saiyan. Gohan heard none of these things, not even the hum of the refrigerator. Nothing made a sound in this house, not even Gohan as he moved through it.

He stopped at the beginning of the hallway leading to the rooms for a breath. It felt like a huge usage of ki had just taken place here, either that or some other power. The air was different, strange, even sluggish. All signs of huge energy levels being used.

Gohan moved to the doorway of his room. He was about to pass on when he was blasted in the head by a voice. Gohan reeled away from the sudden explosion of sound in the silent, silent house, before he recovered sufficiently enough to recognize the voice as _in_ his head, not out. Gohan had to relax to listen to the message, but he tensed up immediately after he heard it. For the message was from Kakkhan, left approximately fifteen Earthling minutes ago, and went like this:

'Gohan, I'm going to Giendon. I will be back when I'm done with them. See you in an Earthling hour and half. Kakkhan.'

There was even an image of Kakkhan's face to accompany the image. It was grim, and there was a glitter in Kakkhan's eyes that almost scared Gohan. It certainly made him feel sorry for the Laniins, for obviously Kakkhan had finally decided to finish the Giendonese chapter of his life. He could only hope that Kakkhan wasn't held up or stopped in his plans. Nothing nice would ensue from the delay, and Gohan didn't think the Laniins would appreciate it very much if one of the member was dead at Kakkhan's hands. Gohan shuddered inwardly at the thought. He really hoped that didn't happen to his twin.

:-:-:-:

Kakkhan ignored yet another Laniin as he walked steadily to the Board of Headmasters room. He had a job to do, and no one was going to prevent him from doing it. Not even a high-ranking Laniin.

However, he did slow when a Gorthan stepped into his path, and a very familiar Gorthan too.

**_Hey, Kakkhan, you're back! You took a long time in completing your quest. Were the Androids a bit of a problem for you? Or was it the Humans that got in the way?_** Balannon asked, his pale yellow eyes warm with relief and friendship. The grew worried, however, when Kakkhan didn't respond, didn't smile, didn't move, just stood there and looked at him. Balannon was disturbed by the strange glitter in his best friend's eyes and by the lack of warm recognition in them. There was recognition, all right, but it was cold, as if Balannon was his enemy.

The Gorthan tried again. **_Kakkhan? Are you going to speak to me, or are you going to daydream?_** No response, like last time. Balannon was truly alarmed now. This was not the Kakkhan he knew. Something was wrong, horribly wrong.

**_Kakkhan? Are you all right?_** Hysteria and more than a little bit of worry colored Balannon's voice now, pitching it higher than normal. Kakkhan was sorry for this, but he needed to do it. He had a feeling that Balannon would understand in due time. But for now, Kakkhan just moved past him.

**_Kakkhan?_** Balannon called one last time. Kakkhan turned back, his black eyes noting the full-degree panic on his former best friend's face and voice. Balannon had always been emotional.

**_I'm sorry, Balannon. You will understand what I'm about to do and why in time. But for right now, I must leave you in the dark. Do not come after me, do not try to contact me, do not do anything with regards to me. This is the last time we will meet on the same ground. Next time, we will be enemies. Enjoy your life as a Giendonese Warrior, for you do not have much of it left,_** Kakkhan said.

He lingered to make sure that Balannon had received his message clearly. Seeing by the baffled and hurt look he had on his face, Kakkhan deduced he had. The Saiyan then turned his back and walked away, ignoring, with a rapidly breaking heart, Balannon's calls after him, pleading him to stop and explain himself. Kakkhan just kept walking, and soon left the Gorthan behind.

The next person he encountered was the Head of the Raelin himself. Kakkhan simply nodded to him like he usually did when these encounters occurred. The Raelin nodded back and they continued on their separate ways.

Kakkhan was almost to the Office when another Laniin stopped him. It was, again, the female Laniin who had been there for Kakkhan when he first arrived, and whose name Kakkhan now knew to be Rakael. Kakkhan halted for the second time that day and waited for her to do something.

Rakael stared at the boy who was about to betray them. He was standing with a defiant yet resigned feeling, and there was a hooded recognition in his otherwise blank eyes. She knew he had found out just what the Laniins did to the children they kidnapped and **cleaned**. She knew that was the reason he was leaving, and she applauded him for it. Rakael would do the same thing, too, if the punishment for treason was not worse for Laniins than for Giendon-raised fosterlings. For the fosterlings, Death awaited them. For Laniins, it was a state of limbo in which the soul and body were ripped apart, never to be put back together again; they had that to look forward to. Rakael would never risk her soul just to do the right thing, unlike this brave warrior who could only risk his life.

Rakael opened her thin cleft of a mouth and out came— **_I know you are here to leave. I know why as well. I will not turn you in, because what you are doing is brave. Some people may call you a fool for doing this, but I bow to you for your actions. I just wanted to tell you that not all Laniinslike taking away the freedom and the life of our fosterlings in order to have a secure army. I suggest that you do not hold your grudge against all of us, only against the ones who stand against you. It was not the anti-slavery Laniins' fault that they were born Laniins, nor is it ours that we have to live with them._**

Kakkhan considered Rakael's words. As usual, Rakael had good points that hit close to the truth about Kakkhan and his newfound grudge toward all Laniins, not just the ones who had done him wrong. Kakkhan systematically excluded Rakael from his focus, and also kept an open mind for any anti-slavery Laniins, as Rakael had called them. His current group included Janden, Nirvana, and with some hesitation, Yuin. He was not sure if Yuin had co-conspired to retrieve Kakkhan from Earth and therefore to destroy his freedom and his childhood. He added him because Earth was in Yuin's jurisdiction, and nothing could be done without the Board's unanimous approval.

Kakkhan nodded to Rakael, who stepped out of his way. He continued to the door of the Board of Headmasters room, faced it, and stamped his foot once, hard. The door slid open silently from left to right, admitting the intruder, then slid closed behind him, plunging him into darkness.

Kakkhan was used to the darkness, however. He easily made out Nirvana's face all alone in the middle of the huge table, with her head crowned and her hands steady, as well as the expression of disappointment on her lovely gold-skinned features. Kakkhan regarded the expression and decided that Nirvana really had no idea what to expect from Kakkhan's prolonged disappearance. She had just adopted that expression, Kakkhan further decided, to try and intimidate him. Well, it wasn't working. It was at length that Nirvana finally spoke.

**_Greetings, Eiranos. It has been a long time since we last met,_** she said.

Kakkhan simply nodded. Nirvana pursed her lips, a weird twisting of her mouth that briefly made her seem like a monster, before she delicately went on.

**   
_How has the mission gone? I trust that it is done, as you have indeed taken long in coming back to us._   
**

Kakkhan said nothing. He was not going to say anything, either, until Nirvana stopped playing her games and started to treat him like the equal intellectual he was.

Nirvana was puzzled. Why did the Boy not answer? He had not bowed to her, either, when he come into the room. In fact, Eiranos had not shown her any sign of the respect that being Headmistress commanded. She wondered if Eiranos had been taken over by the Human Earthlings. Was that it? Or was it something else that controlled one of her most faithful subjects? Either way, she was going to have to break the spell cast upon the Boy. He was a serious threat to any enemies he had, all of the fosterling slaves were. But Eiranos was a threat among threats, with his massive power levels in ki and his advanced understanding of Laniin technology and ideals. If Eiranos ever left the Laniin army or and became an enemy… Well, Nirvana did not want to think about that.

She tried again. **_What is wrong, Eiranos? You are not responding._**

Kakkhan had to stop himself from sneering. So Nirvana thought she could get the story behind his long disappearance by acting maternal. Fool. He didn't answer the question, but he did say something.

**_I am leaving, Headmistress Nirvana. I have come back to tell you this, and to tell you that from this day forth we are no longer allies. I am resigning from the ranks of the _Tiara's _army, and I symbolize this resignation by giving up my room capsule._** With those words said, Kakkhan stepped up and laid his capsule onto the wide tale. He commented further on the situation with, **_I know that this is called treason, and I do it willingly. I will not be a slave to your society any longer, and if you attempt to make me be one again, whomever you send after me will die. This I promise you, Headmistress Nirvana, and I am a Saiyan of my word._**

Kakkhan took a deep breath to calm himself. Nirvana was looking at him with a combination of shock, sudden understanding, and fear. It was this fear that allowed Kakkhan to say calmly the last kind words he'd ever say to his former Headmistress.

**   
_Good day, Headmistress Nirvana._   
**

Kakkhan turned only to be stopped mid-turn by Nirvana's soft, **_Eiranos._**

Kakkhan turned back and looked at Nirvana. Her blue-pupiled eyes were soft with sorrow, but she held her head high in the face of her race's greatest nightmare. Kakkhan had to give her points just for composure.

**_Eiranos, when you arrived as Gohan, I could sense that you would the wielder of great strength. But I could not have believed that such potential could rest in the body of such a little boy. So I decided to watch you and see if I could believe what my senses were telling me. I did, and all I can say is that I am proud of the person you have become, both as a scholar and as a warrior. I am sad that you are resigning, especially as you have come to the conclusion Yuin was talking about before you reached your full potential as a person or in power. Do you remember what Yuin said, that day when you came?_** Nirvana asked.

Kakkhan could.

:-:-: **_FLASHBACK MODE _**:-:-:

_Nirvana welcomed the Human Boy to Giendon, and asked Gohan if he understood why he had been brought to Giendon. Gohan shook his head. The inhumanely beautiful Human at the far-left end of the board frowned, but didn't say anything. He stared at Gohan with his startling green eyes. He had wavy black hair, no sideburns, and a goatee. He wore a white spandex over a green gi with swallow-tailed sleeves. His nose was hawk-bent, and his mouth was a firm line in his face. His forehead soared high over his eyes, and chiseled eyebrows marched across the otherwise unblemished forehead. All in all, he looked quite magnificent._

The female Laniin turned to the Human, "Yuin, do you have anything to say? From your thoughts, it sounds like you wish to comment on the boy's ignorance." Yuin, still frowning, shook his head no.

"Then perhaps you would want to guide the young one to understanding why he has been brought here?" Again Yuin shook his head no, but he did venture a comment on the last subject.

"I cannot guide him, for the young one must come to the conclusion on his own. I cannot make him understand at his age now, even with his complimentary education wrought unto him by his mother so far. He has just been taken from his parents, and if he isn't feeling anything now, he will later, if he is left alone before the cleaning. You know that as well as any Laniin, if not more, Nirvana."

Nirvana nodded her crowned head. "Yes, I do know. But I had forgotten about that, for we have not had a Human visitor for a while." She turned to Janden. "Yuin will not guide the boy, I have forgotten the ways of Human nature, and my colleagues know nothing about Humans…."

:-:-: _**END FLASHBACK MODE** _:-:-:

**   
_You have reached the conclusion that you were brought here to be a willing slave in our army. But you were also taken to rescue you from the hardships of life that Lady Fate had in store for you. You were at a crossroads in life at age two, and we guided you onto one road. I hope you forgive us eventually, and I also would like you to know that I understand why you are leaving. It does not make this parting any easier, but I do understand. _   
**

_**Still, I would like, as well, to say that personally, you and I are not enemies. It is only because of my office that you and I stand apart of one another. We will meet again as enemies, yes, but not because of a personal wrong I myself dealt you. As Headmistress, there I have committed terrible crimes against you. But only as Headmistress, not as only Nirvana.**_ Nirvana finished, the sorrow in her eyes telling Kakkhan what her words did not. He looked at Nirvana; studied the lines in her golden face. He decided that she was telling the truth, and that she did so from the bottom of her heart.

Kakkhan inclined his head to his former Headmistress Nirvana, keeping his eyes on hers. Without further ado, he turned his back and walked away, thus ending one stage of his life and embarking upon another.

And it felt good doing that.

:-:-:-:

**FINITE**

KAKKHAN: GIENDONESE SAIYAN WARRIOR

:-:-:-:

Official Last Chapter Dedication: To mis padres, without whom I would never be quite the happy-go-lucky person I am. To my reviewers; you guys inspired me when I needed inspiration and just wasn't getting it. You made me laugh, and also made me feel guilty enough to post. Thank you all, and I'll see you next time.

Well, see ya next time!

**TheShadowPanther** and Allati, from **AASN**

**AASN; **Writing is what we do for you at **AASN**. Enjoy.


End file.
